The Magichinan Blood
by Titantnt
Summary: After defeating Nerissa, Phobos and Cedric, Metamore is attacked by a mysterious new enemy. As the girls of WITCH try to figure out who is behind it all, more and more fingers point towards Will. Will the girls believe in Will's innocence or will they let their fear of Nerissa get the better of them? Willx?
1. The Girl with Red Eyes

**Chapter one/Prologue: "The girl with the red eyes"**

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><p>It was her final jump before she decided that this was a good enough place to see what was going on. It wasn't easy to ignore the rather large fight that was going on outside in downtown Heatherfield. She had just returned from a hunting trip, the iron taste of blood still clinging to her teeth, when she heard a loud roar in the distance. Freerunning through the city she noticed that she was one of the very, very few who actually noticed that some flying people were fighting against an enormous snake. And even from here it puzzled her why she was the only one to see this fight. Although she noticed that one of the billboards on top of one of the office buildings showed an ironically cartoonified version of the battle. From the billboard she could make out that there were five girls, five fairies fighting the snake with the 5 Greek elemental powers; fire, earth, water, air and Quintessence. It didn't take her long to figure out that they were the Guardians of Kandrakar. She decided to merely watch and observe.<p>

Near the end of the battle the giant snake was reduced to nothing and the five girls were victorious. At the same time she could feel a magical signature coming up from behind. Well, not it's magical signature, but rather the stench of something that has been half digested and been thrown up. She turned her head to see a towering figure with long pale hair and a purple robe stand behind her. He was covered in a somewhat greenish slime and it was dripping off him on the floor. For the most part he seemed to be ignoring that and any fact.

She didn't worry too much, though. No human could ever catch or capture her.

They looked for a moment at each other. She scanned his being and he seemed to inspect her as well, in his own way. It was clear his magic was Kandrakarian based, unlike hers.

"You… Have red eyes…" The man muttered, slightly surprised. "And what is an adorable little girl like yourself doing here? I am surprised that you could see that all. That was a very powerful glamour and you watched right through it. How come?"

"And you smell like the insides of a giant snake." She replied jokingly, although the smell reminded her that it was far from a joke. She was curious why he was inside of a snake and what was generally going on.

Rather than an annoyed reaction or anything negative at all, he seemed even more surprised when she started to reply. As if she wasn't supposed to reply at al.

"It's been a long time since I heard anyone speak Metamorian so fluently." The man said. "Forget the "little girl" part. You must be eons old."

She was surprised at first, but then reminded herself at one of her most characterizing abilities. It was no wonder this man saw her as something she wasn't. She had to grin. This man was so stupid. She couldn't blame the Kandrakarian, but he was stupid none the less. As she grinned she gave him another piece of her false origin. She found it quite musing to tease the man into believing she was something she was not. Not even close. As she grinned, she made sure that her fanged carnivorous teeth were properly visible.

"So it's true. You are a vampire." The man muttered. "It's been a time since I've seen one of you. May I ask your bloodline?"

The girl rolled with her eyes. For once she gave truthful information. "I have none. Or at least, no clan to return too."

"Well, I could use someone like yourself at my court."

"At court? You, coming from the bowels of a snake, having a castle?"

"Sort of." The man replied. "Of course, I need to retake it. My pesky little sister and her Guardian friends have captured it. If you help me, I'll make you my right hand. With all the perks included; a home, hunting grounds, diplomatic power and of course a proper supply of fresh, human blood."

At first she wasn't interested in his bargaining. She already had a home, and blood. She wasn't a vampire but she needed blood anyway. No, she wasn't interested in his offer until she realised something peculiarly; the man was an enemy of the Guardians. The perfect enemies for something she longed for a long, long time.

She looked up at the man. "What happened to your previous right hand man?"

The man sighed. "He ate me."

The girl grinned broadly, out of muse as well as to show off her fangs to threaten him. "Double cross me, and you're going to _wish_ I ate you."

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><p><strong>AN: If this feels familiar; that's correct. I'm remastering "The Magichinan Blood" from scratch. Now includes more complex magic system, less plot holes (I hope) and the same ol' me*. ^^<strong>

**Sorry if some people are somewhat Out of Character at the moment. I haven't been writing with W.I.T.C.H stuff in ages, but I should soon get the hang of it again.**

**I hope you enjoyed this prologue! More is to come soon!**  
><strong>Thanks for reading and see you back next chapter!<strong>  
><strong>(And don't forget to review ;3 )<strong>

***Spelling and Grammar are still Bleh**

****This story is M-Rated for... Well... I dunno. -^(-.-)^-**  
><strong>Just for the sake of it. It's probably T-rated, but I feel safer to say M up front anyway.<strong>


	2. A New Enemy

**Chapter Two "A New Enemy"**

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><p>Will entered the school yard with her friends. Still having slight aches from the battle against Cedric, she looked around, noting to herself that nobody on Earth had noticed the fight at all. Although thanks to the Glamour spell the Regents of Earth had set up there was only a little bit collateral damage. Most people blamed the excessive damage from that night on the snow storm – still, Will wondered how people could blame a completely crushed car on a snow storm.<p>

Now that Christmas vacation was over, WITCH had to fight a very though enemy again; the teachers and their deadly weapon homework. If only there was a way for them to stop the teachers from using their ultimate; testweek. Will shivered more from the thoughts of that than the cold around her.

"I wonder if we could put all the teachers into that prison on Meridian." Irma wondered out loud. Will could see the sparks in her eyes as Irma thought of more 'ways' to either dodge the upcoming attacks or prevent them from happening at all.

"Oh, you mean we should WITCH all the teachers, like we did with Collins?" Cornelia joked, looking especially in Will's direction, making her blush in shame as she remembered the ordeal.

"It was an accident!" Will replied in her 'honest' defence. "And even so, he deserved it! He misplaced my carefully written essay with some bacon! Now we are even again."

The girls giggled. "Maybe you should always write your homework on bacon, maybe he won't forget then?" Irma suggested.

Will imagined herself doing her homework. First she had to buy a lot of bacon, for all the essays. Then she had to prepare it, flatten it out a bit so she could write more easily on it. Maybe even bake it so it was not as soft. Her whole room would smell like bacon for days and with what would she even write? The ink pen of a tattoo shop to make sure the ink would stick?

"No, thanks." Will replied. "I think I'll just do it the 'normal' way. My mom would _really_ appreciate that."

"Well, soon you can give him your homework at any time. Just walk out of your room and hand it to him." Taranee mused, putting a bit fake jealousy in her voice to tease Will even more.

A shudder went through Will's spine. "Having to live with him isn't something I'm fond of, you know? As a teacher; bad. Dating my mom; really bad. Him next of my bedroom door? No word can describe the horror?"

Irma laid a hand on Will's shoulder and grinned. "How about a 'Gaurdian Unit' and WITCH him again?"

Will hit her fist enthusiastically into her palm and joined in Irma's grin. "How about yeah! We'll just tell him that my apartment is cursed with his family's blood or something and that dark spirits will haunt him if he gets too close." The second after she jokingly wanted to pull the heart out of her shirt to start with the plan.

Taranee stopped her and glared at her. "We can't just WITCH our teacher. Again."

Will and Irma pouted their lips and looked with puppy eyes at her. "Please! Let us WITCH him! We promise it's only for this one time!"

"You know it's illegal to lynch someone in this country, you know that, right?" A male voice stated from behind them. The five girls looked up in his direction. It was one of the new teachers.

"What? We weren't planning on WITCHing anyone! Who was speaking about WITCHing someone? Not us! Wait, how can WITCHing be illegal?" Hay Lin say in rapid succession to kind of cover them up. Irma laid a hand on her mouth before she spilled any more information that the teacher wasn't supposed to know. Then Irma asked "What's lynching anyway? Isn't that a fruit?"

"Lynching someone means you punish him for wronging you on your own, rather than going to court." Taranee explained.

"Bonus points to you, if you are in my class." The man said. "But why would you want to lynch a teacher? What have we done you wrong?"

"Homework." Four of the five girls chanted. Taranee merely sighed.

"Homework isn't that bad. Or are you saying you don't like to write 50 page essays about something that happened long ago?" He joked. The school bell rang. "Speaking about homework, I'm about to give some homework. Hey, maybe one of you will be getting it?"

"What class are you giving?" Will asked anxiously.

"Computer Science!" The man stated proudly.

Will and Cornelia sighed deep. Since they had computer science as the first class of the new year. But for some reason Irma sighed too, even though she wouldn't join them. Will figured that was because he was pretty good looking.

"Sad that you don't have me as your teacher in the first class of the year?" The man asked. Although his sheepish grin said that he knew already that Cornelia and Will would be joining his class next minute. "Anyway, I'm off to class. I suggest you do the same before you are late."

With that said, the girls split off, each going to their own classes. Will and Cornelia followed the man to their class. There were some students waiting already for the teacher to open the door. When the door was open, everyone took a place to sit. Will and Cornelia sat next to each other.

Will noticed that although her whole class was the same as last half year, there was one new girl. She sat down in front of Will. She had brown short, ever so slightly messy hair and brown eyes. She wore glasses with no frame around the glasses, except for the bridge and earpieces. For clothes she wore were a casual dark blue hooded sweater with a pink t-shirt underneath and dark tracking jeans. On her left wrist she wore a black watch and on her right wrist she wore a bracelet. The bracelet was made out of light reddish gems with a red gem butterfly on it. She also wore a simple necklace made out of silver with reddish gems imbedded in the shackles.

Somewhere Will remembered the girl, but she couldn't fully figure out from where. It was mostly the bracelet that made her recall someone from the past. Ironically she once gave a much similar bracelet to a girl back in Fadden Hills. Although the chances of this being _her_ were slim. The place where she bought it sold more of them and the girl had disappeared after an attack on her family. She was probably kidnapped and never seen again after. She had been a good friend of Will, or so Will wanted to think of her. Especially after her parents' divorce she didn't see anyone back then as a friend. Except for Angelo.

Will wanted to reach out for the girl's shoulder, tab it and ask if it was really her, but her teacher started the lesson and she could hardly interrupt him at that moment.

The man introduced himself first. "I am Professor Raphael Sylla. I'm your new teacher Computer Science." He gave an introduction to himself and what he would teach them. At the end he also introduced the new girl.

"We also have a new student." Raphael said out loud. "Lavanya, if you would like to introduced yourself. Where are you from and what are your hobbies?"

Will nearly gasped if she hadn't stopped herself from doing so. It was _her._ A lot of questions started to fill her mind and more than anything she wanted to ask Lavanya all of them. Where had she been? What happened to her? What was she doing here? But also more depressing questions like if she could be trusted. Lavanya had disappeared a few years before her parents divorced, so she hadn't seen Lavanya's bad side like she had with her other classmates. But there was still enough doubt in her mind to question her friendliness.

Lavanya didn't stand up and more shyly told her name and origin. "I'm Lavanya D'Nara. I moved here from Fadden Hills recently due to some family matters. And… Erm… My hobbies are mostly martial arts and the arcane arts."

Raphael shot her a quick smile before taking over again. "Well, Lavanya is new here, so please help her feel comfortable in Heatherfield."

As Raphael continued to talk more about his classes and what to expect from it, Lavanya turned her head around and send Will a shy smile. Will returned the smile, but also mouthed her surprise.

"We'll talk after class, okay?" Lavanya replied. Will nodded. At the same time she noticed Cornelia looking surprised at her.

"Do you know her?" Cornelia asked.

Will nodded again. "Yes, she's an old friend of mine.

* * *

><p>After the bell rang, Will opened a barrage of questions towards Lavanya. "How have you been? What happened? What are you doing here?"<p>

The three girls stood up and as they gathered their things for the next lesson, Lavanya tried to answer some of her questions. During the barrage Lavanya shyly giggled, hiding a grin behind her wrist.

She took a deep breath and answered some of the questions rather ironically. "I'm fine. Nothing happened. Going to school, of course."

Will shook her head. "No, I mean; really, what happened? Angelo and I thought… You know, we'd never see you again."

Lavanya smiled shyly again. Evading the question she turned to Cornelia. "Aren't you going to introduce you friend over here?"

Will looked at Cornelia. She was smiling somewhat, but also seemed a bit suspicious. "I'd like to know the same. You seem to know each other very well."

"Well, Lavanya was one of the friends from Fadden Hill. But… Things happened and I didn't see her since." Will explained rather vaguely. She turned to Lavanya "Mind if I tell her?"

Lavanya shook her head. "If you trust her, I suppose I will."

Will turned to Cornelia and she explained her what she could tell about Lavanya, while the person in question remained silent. "Before I moved to Heatherfield I had two friends, Angelo, whom you already know," Will said as she raised a finger to count. "And Lavanya." She said as she raised a second finger. "She had some pretty bad luck in her live. Her mother died at child birth, her father died in a fire and later her aunt and uncle were murdered the same night as Lavanya was kidnapped. I haven't heard of her since, nor did Angelo."

Cornelia was rather surprised. "That is some bad luck. How did you survive all that?"

Lavanya shrugged. "I suppose there is a bright side on every cloud, no matter how dark it may seem."

The girls wanted to talk some more, but the bell rang another time, signalling that the next lesson, French, was about to start. Will thought she could chat with Lavanya some more, but the girl broke off of them for some reason. "Sorry, but I hate French. See you later." Lavanya waved them goodbye and left for another corridor. Will and Cornelia looked bewildered at each other for a moment.

"Don't tell me she's a delinquent."

Will shrugged. "I hope not. I haven't seen her in years."

* * *

><p>Lavanya joined with up with Will for the first recess. Will asked her why she left.<p>

"I'm pretty dyslectic, so I don't have to do any languages besides English." Lavanya replied. "Instead I take extra classes."

The three headed for the table where Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin. The three girls looked surprised at Lavanya and Will gave them a short introduction. As the girls sat down, Will took a moment to message Angelo about Lavanya, who seemed really surprised and glad that she turned up well and okay.

However, not five minutes later Lavanya stood up and suddenly left for seemingly no reason. Will figured that she was still shy and that having to meet all these people and all the attention would be too much for her. Will quickly followed her and halfway the canteen Lavanya stopped for a moment so Will could catch up. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked her worryingly.

Lavanya sighed and turned around. "It's nothing… Really… It's just… I don't really think your friends like me."

"Don't like you? Why wouldn't they?" Will wondered out loud. Although she could recall that at certain moments the girls were a little suspicious of her. Maybe it was all too soon and they were all still on edge from Phobos, Cedric and Nerissa. Will looked at the ground for a moment and sighed as guilt and doubt kicked in. Unlike the others she had opened her arms the instant she recognized Lavanya. Who was she really anyhow? She had disappeared many years ago and now suddenly popped up?

Will shook her head to get thoroughly rid of the thoughts. Phobos, Nerissa and Cerdic were all locked up and without any form of powers. Everything was fine now and nothing bad would happen, wouldn't there?

Lavanya gave her a shy smile with a bit reassurance in it. "I'll talk later with you, okay? Things are new and I just have to get used to people again."

Will nodded, although she was still a bit confused. Lavanya turned around and walked away out of the canteen. For the rest of the day she seemed to avoid Will and her friends a bit. Will talked with them about it and the girls had to admit; it was all too soon and too sudden after their last battle. Although there was a bit to gossip.

Taranee had accidently opened up on reading Lavanya's thoughts and 'finding nothing'. Litteraly. Her mind was empty. Hay Lin had noticed how her lips were ever so slightly out of sync with the words she spoke. Cornelia had something similar, but then with her writing gestures. Whenever her pen touched the paper, the ink wouldn't appear on the same place. Her gestures suggested gibberish, but her words became fluid and beautiful. Last but not least; Irma had noticed how Lavanya had skipped one of her classes. Will explained it was because she could skip on French in exchange for extra classes, but instead she had found her sitting in a window frame, eating lunch – Irma spotted her on her way to the headmaster for disturbing the lesson too much.

It worried Will. Part of her wanted to scold them for doubting Lavanya so much and the other part could do no more than worry who she was and what she was doing here. She couldn't make up her mind as of to treat Lavanya as an equal or an enemy. Even more difficult for her was how distant Lavanya had just become. From one moment to another she seemed to plainly… ignore Will. Not because of angriness but more out of fear.

Will texted Angelo mid class secretly – although getting caught at the end - He suggested to just let her be for a while and slowly adjust herself. While being surrounded by friends can be a good thing, it is only bad when you force it upon someone. Especially if those friends just went through the deepest web of trickery, cheater and treachery in their lives.

The first few days Will tried to switch between seeing Lavanya and seeing the girls, not trying to mix the two into one group as to avoid her error from day one.

Two weeks later, Will decided to spend a good part of the day with Lavanya and asked her out, to go shopping with her. It was more a reason to hang out with her than actually needing clothes. Lavanya agreed and Will met up with her at the end of school.

Will walked up to Lavanya. The girl smiled shyly back. "Are you ready?" Will asked her. Lavanya replied with a nod.

Will had already arranged with the other girls that she would be would go out and about with Lavanya for a day. They didn't mind although they were a little suspicious. Will didn't expect any less. The girls had already made clear that there were some strange things going on around Lavanya.

Lavanya and Will went to various places. They went for a movie, shopping for clothes and overall sightseeing. They talked about many things, but Lavanya's past was something of a taboo. Lavanya didn't seem wanting to talk about it. It was a bit of a shame and it slightly bothered Will. Though it wasn't weird. There was this wall between them that both separated and connected them. Like the Veil. Will could sometimes peek at Lavanya's inner feelings and sometimes not. A gate would randomly appear and it gave Will a bit more understanding of who Lavanya really was under all the shyness and nervousness.

Later that evening the two girls went to Will's place for dinner. Will tried to open the door, being packed with a few bags of new clothes – which Lavanya paid for her, since it was way more than Will's purse would allow – and entered the apartment.

"So this is where you live now?" Lavanya asked as she looked around. The apartment was of course nothing compared to the house Will lived in back in Fadden Hills.

"Mom! I'm home!" Will yelled through the apartment as she closed the door behind her. She then turned to Lavanya and grinned sheepishly. "It isn't much, but it's a place to call home."

Susan walked into the room, sighted at the sight of the bags and then gasped surprised when she saw Lavanya. "Isn't that…?"

Will nodded. "Lavanya, this is my mother. If you can remember her."

Lavanya nodded. "Hey, miss Vandom. Long-time no see." She said, grinning sheepishly.

Susan walked up to her and almost inspected her on every detail, to make sure everything was still in place and to see what had changed about her. "Will already told me about you, but you sure grew! How are you doing?"

"I'm fine." Lavanya replied shyly.

Susan turned too Will. "You are right in time for dinner. Although…"

Will raised an eyebrow and wondered what her mother tried to tell her.

"There is a second 'visitor'." Susan said with a sheepish smile. As on cue; Dean rounded the corner. "Hey girls." Dean said happily.

Will sighed. She hoped she could dine with Lavanya and her mother alone, as to ease out on Lavanya. That Dean would be there too was rather unpleasant unexpected.

"Hey Mister Collins." Lavanya replied shyly, she then leaned towards Will. "You're right. Teachers need to stay at school."

"So you and Will know each other?" Dean asked. Will and Lavanya nodded.

The two girls brought their things to Will's room and joined the table for dinner. There was a period of silence before Dean broke it with a question directed at Lavanya. "So, you live at Villa Ludmoore?"

Lavanya nodded. "Yep. Apparently I am a descendant of the house owner and being the last… Well, the house is mine. Not really, I only get the deed until I turn 18, but they were as kind as to let my live there none the less."

Dean was a little unsettled when he was bluntly confronted with the fact that Lavanya had no family whatsoever left. Will and Susan knew her history a bit better but it was still an awkward thing she said.

Non the less he continued on. Probably heading somewhere into history of the house. "Did you know that house has a very deep and interesting history? There are many tales and myths connected to that house."

Lavanya nodded. "I know. There are a lot of books and a few diary's from previous households. Do you know the story of the five fairies who have to save their friend, who got sucked into Ludmoore's spellbook?"

Dean shook his head. "No I haven't."

Lavanya smiled. "You should look it up. It's pretty interesting. Although the ending is a bit sad. Should I bring you some of the diaries to read?"

Dean nodded. "Well, I'm a history teacher. I'm always in for more history. Talking about teaching, Will, did you finish that assignment I gave you last week?"

Susan and Lavanya giggled as Will looked angry at Dean. "You're not a teacher! At least, not when we're home - I'm home!"

There were a few more discussions and most were about and around Lavanya. So she lived at Villa Ludmoore, an old house near the edge of the bay. When she inherited the house, she also inherited a fortune, which she uses to pay everything from. Will had asked if they could go there – as to avoid Susan (and Dean) to bring Lavanya more at ease – but Lavanya replied that the house wasn't ready for visitors yet. Will wouldn't mind, but Lavanya explicitly said she couldn't go there yet.

After dinner, the two girls headed towards room to chat some more. However, it got rather late and it was pretty dark. Lavanya wanted to head home, but Susan was a little reluctant. There was probably a little scare in her that something would happen to Lavanya again. Lavanya argued that she would be fine and could take a cab if it had to be, but Susan would rather drive her home herself. Surprisingly the idea with the most favour came from Dean. "Why won't you have a sleepover? Isn't that something you teens do all the time?"

"Some teens." Lavanya muttered sarcastically.

Will looked at Lavanya. It was somewhere between a good idea and a bad idea. It would make more or less make up for the negligence from the past week, but it could pressure Lavanya too much. For a moment Will thought Lavanya would just go home, but instead she smiled as shy as ever and nodded. "Why not? It's been a while since we had our last sleepover, wasn't it?"

There was no second bed, so the girls had to share the bed for the night. Something they didn't really mind. Lavanya had bought some pyjama's which came to good use now.

The girls climbed under the blankets and Will switched the lights off. As she closed her eyes she could feel Lavanya snuggle against her and mutter something softly. "Thanks for today."

It gave Will a gently warm feeling. She was happy to be of help and despite all the suspicion and Lavanya's social awkwardness, Will hoped that Lavanya was genuinely an ally.

* * *

><p>It was late at night when a voice in Will's head woke her up.<p>

_"Will?"_

It was Cornelia. She sounded worried. Will shook the sleep of her head as much as she could and replied. _"Cornelia? What's wrong?"_

_"Blunk's here."_

_"Blunk? What is Blunk doing here?"_

_"It's Elyon… Meridian is under attack."_

A surge of energy passed through Will, waking her almost entirely up. _'No! No! No!'_ she thought annoyed. _'Haven't we had enough things to do the past months?'_

_"Who is attacking? What's going on?"_

_"Blunk says its robots running on steam engines. We've no clue who is behind it, but they're pretty much already at the walls. And there's a big one. One as massive as the castle itself."_

Will took a deep breath and scolded to herself. She quickly formulated a scramble plan in her head. _"Let's meet up with Elyon and see for ourselves. Go ahead and I'll get the rest of the girls."_

Will turned her thoughts to Taranee and told her to wake the others for her. They would then teleport towards Hay Lin's basement and Will would telefold them to Metamoor.

When she had relayed Taranee the necessary information she climbed out of bed, noticing that Lavanya was gone. Her door was on a slit, so Will presumed she was going to the bathroom.

She used the opportunity to transform and teleport to the other girls. Both Irma, Hay Lin and Taranee were very sleepy.

"Can we do this quickly? I'm tired off Meridian being in trouble all the time…" Irma said.

"Aren't we all?" Taranee replied.

Will took the Heart and made a fold to the throne room where they found Elyon and some of her officers, Blunk and Cornelia gathered. Will could hear a lot of noises coming from outside. It was the fighting of a war going outside. But it sounded way to new age for it. Meridian didn't have guns or explosives, yet she heard a fair amount of it.

"You're here." Elyon said gratuitous. "I'm sorry to ask you for help again, but…"

"Don't worry, we're on it." Will said. She looked at the other girls and they nodded. They flew outside and stopped mid-air. A shiver ran down Will's spine as she looked at a giant six-legged mechanical spider which was slowly rampaging though the town outside the walls of the castle. The spider wasn't alone. It was escorted by a large varied army of all kinds of robots, all steampunk themed. The skies were slowly growing black from all the exhaust of coal or oil and the fires and explosions that raged on the ground.

Will and the other girls were stunned for a moment. After everything. After _everything_ they had to deal with, Destiny threw _this_ at them.

Taranee was the first to recover from the stun effect and hurled a large fireball towards what looked like a flying machine invented by Leonardo Da Vinci. Although it's propeller wasn't made out of paper or sheet – how the thing could fly anyhow was a mystery all together – it did enough damage to make it explode and fall to the ground in pieces, luckily missing some of Elyon's men.

"Sorry!" Taranee yelled apoplectic down, even though her words wouldn't reach her under the loud sounds

She looked at Will for answers. What would they do now? How would they battle such a large monster? And even if they beat it – somehow – how would they take out an entire army?

One thing was certain; Meridian's army was no match for bullets and rockets. They had to retreat to the castle. And although most of the men were already routing, _everyone_ had to run. Will turned to Cornelia. "Get to Elyon and tell her to retreat everyone into the castle! When you're done, help with reinforcing the castle as best as you can!"

Will then turned to Hay Lin, Taranee and Irma. "Hay Lin, try to take as many of those flying machines down as you can. Taranee and Irma, you're to take down the ground forces and keep anything from attacking the walls and help anyone inside."

"And what are you going to do?" Taranee wondered.

Will shook her head. She didn't really know. Each of the girls had something to hit the machines with, but what use would her powers be against these metal machines? Maybe she could animate them – somewhat ironically – and use them against the other robots?

"I'm going to try something." Will said, somewhat uncertain.

Hay Lin nodded and shot off into the distance, blowing the flying machines out of the sky in rapid succession. Cornelia flew back to the castle to tell Elyon Will's plan. Taranee and Irma dove down and began bombarding the ground troops.

Will waited for a few moments to look for a few scattered robots she could take on. Trying to experiment in the bulk of the army didn't strike her as a smart plan.

She spotted a some robots she could use, some strangles who were demolishing the buildings rather than attacking the caste, and flew towards them. When she go closer, she felt a strange pulse of energy streaming through her and for a moment she passed out. She felt a spot in her neck where it hurt her badly. Her whole body became uncontrollable and she crashed into the attic of one of the houses whose roof had collapsed.

When Will regained consciousness she shook her head and placed her hand on the nape of her neck. She could feel with the tips of her fingers two wounds. She couldn't remember what hurt her there, since it was before the crash-landing. Maybe she got hit mid-air, but if it was a bullet…

Will stood up and could see some of the robots cause havoc among the buildings for no apparent reason. She hid behind some debris and watched the robots. They were at least 30 feet high and were really nothing like humans or 'classic humanoid robots' at all. They were rather humanoid, but much skimpier. And it almost looked as if they were made out of scrap metal rather than properly build war machines. On one hand they had a claw while on the other hand they had a fire weapon. Some had a cannon, while other had a large electric bolt weapon and others had machine guns.

Among the humanoids was also an insectoid. It walked on six legs and had two 'legs' near what seemed like a head, which they used for melee attacks. On its back was something of a small mortar cannon which periodically shot out explosives.

Will succumbed to her knees as another pulse of energy ran through her body, originating from the wound in her neck. She either had screamed or made another loud noise as all the machines noticed her and started to look at her. Two of them raised their guns, a cannon and a Gatling gun. Will gasped and without thought she shot out a lightning bolt towards the two humanoids, covering them completely with lightning. The attack exhausted Will for a moment but it was well worth it. The machines stopped moving. Smoke was coming from a variety of parts and they quickly fell on the ground.

There was an explosion coming from the spider and Will could see a bomb flying in a high angle towards her. She jumped out of the building just in time as the bomb hit the building next to her and blew a hole into the roof. Just before hitting the ground Will flew up and towards the spider, landing on its back. Debris from the roof flew around her, but didn't hit her.

Will looked around at the back of the spider and tried to find something important she could break. She noticed how the mortar started to turn towards her and she ducked. As luck may have it, the barrel couldn't depress low enough to fire at her.

Will took this moment of safety to find something to break and with her Guardian strength she managed to kick the head off. The spider shook wildly before too collapsing through its legs.

Will looked around herself and she was kind of proud of herself. Despite everything her lightning _was_ effective and she could easily break them. She just hoped the other girls hadn't had problems.

Before Will went experimenting, she went into one of the houses to find a mirror and look for what her wound looked like. For all she could tell she wasn't, except for her neck.

She found a mirror and she looked at the wound. It was a strange wound. It was small, barely noticeable. And it were actually two wounds, not one, really close together. She wondered what the wounds were all about. The only thing that worried Will was why she was reacting so strong on the wound, even though it was just a minor one.

She would look at the wound later and try to supress the pain. She walked towards one of the humanoid robots, the one with the cannon, and used her powers on it to animate it again. At first it didn't work. She tried a few times but it wouldn't come back to live. Then, her lightning turned black, instead of its normal bluish colour. It startled her, but it worked. The robot was slowly standing back up again!

The robot was a bit shaky and Will wasn't really sure on how to command it. When it stood tall – and it didn't attack her – Will commanded it to head into the bulk of the army and attack it. Surprisingly, it mindlessly walked through the streets, raised its cannon and fired into an ex-friendly. The enemy robot was taken down by the surprise explosion that blew its main body apart.

The other robots quickly fired back and Will's robot was almost directly turned into scrap metal. The robots ignored her none the less and continued walking, either not seeing her or not seeing her as a threat.

Will then went to the second robot and brought it back to live too. Although it worked on her second try, she noticed worriedly that her power had turned dark so suddenly. She thought back at Narrissa and all the guild and fear of turning evil came back to her. Why was her lightning suddenly black? It brought the robots back to live, but why was it black?

It was something she wanted to worry later on. Just like Lavanya and her wound. Everything was for later. Now she… They had to save Meridian again.

The second robot got up and Will had it wait. She turned to the spider and wondered to what extend she could bring it back to life. She tried a few times, but even the black lightning didn't work. She figured it was because it missed its head. She tinkered some with the head but it was too damaged for her to fix it. Which was a shame. She would love to learn what this insectoid could do for her.

Will took a moment to think about what to do next. The mega spider was closing in on the castle and although she could convert robots to her side, it wouldn't be enough in time to do any real damage at all. At least, not if she converted one of the smaller robots. What if she could turn the mega spider?

If anything, it was worth the shot. Will just hoped she could amass enough energy to turn the massive robot. It was nearly as big as the castle. But if she could turn it, it would take out everything around it. And maybe it was even the control centre and the battle would end in an instant! That is, if it wasn't piloted by a human, like the robots she had found here were. They were all autonomous.

Will took off and flew up high into the sky. She looked at the battlefield. Hay Lin was doing a good job of clearing the skies and Will could see some of Taranee's flames causing explosions and Irma's water flood and topple some robots. Cornelia was hurling rocks into the bulk of the army like a giant trebuchet and using plants as traps below the walls to keep the robots at bay.

The mega spider wasn't too far away from Will and being so small and the spider being busy destroying the town, it hardly noticed the fly landing on it.

Being so close she could see how much of a walking fortress it was. There were guns and turrets all around it, firing in a lot of directions. On the back of the mega spider was a giant missile rack with giant rockets ready to be fired. Will figured, or hoped, the mega spider couldn't fire them because they were so heavy and had to get closer. Which meant she didn't have a lot of time.

Will landed on a catwalk that led to a corridor inside the spider. She walked through a few corridors and noticed there was nobody. No form of security what so ever. It was empty. It was autonomous. While this was good news, it also was bad news. If nobody controlled these machines, who was attacking Meridian? Could it be that someone made these and they went berserk?

Will would find out later. She ran through the corridors of the mega spider to the centre. She figured if she was at the centre, it would be easier to convert. But as she got closer, she noticed someone follow her. The bad guy? A heroic/stupid soldier who managed to get inside?

Will turned around to see a boy standing a small distance away behind her. He wore a cloak of metal scales and a mask and a hood over his hair. The mask and the scales were all made out of the same material.

The boy revealed his hands and a fireball appeared in his hands using strange gestures. For a moment Will could look at the clothes he wore under the cloak and noticed the boy being a she. So it was a girl standing opposite of her.

Will instantly ducked as the fireball flew her way and exploded against a wall a distance behind her where the corridor split off.

"Hm." The girl yelled sarcastically out loud as to overcome the machine's loud noises. "Could you stand still please, so I can fry you?"

Will jumped up. "Who are you?" She asked instead.

"No fair! I asked the question first!" She replied, together with a series of fireballs which Will tried to dodge in the cramp space. She returned with her own lightning attack. The attack hit the scales and they seemed to react to the lightning as they suddenly fell apart, revealing the petite stature of the girl. Now that the hood was gone, she noticed the girl having red hair in a bob, like herself.

"Who are you! Answer me or I'll take you down and ask again!"

The girl shook her head. "Well, you could always try. And fail."

Will conjured another lightning attack up and shot it towards the girl. The girl managed to conjure a shield up and blocked Will's attack without effort.

"Denied." The girl joked.

Will wanted to lash out again, but realised that if she used her attacks here, she would never be able to stop the mega spider. She clenched her fist. Taking down the girl or taking down the spider…

She choose the spider. If it came too close to the castle…

Will turned on her heels and ran deeper into the spider. The girl yelled for her to come back and face her, but Will ignored her which got her a few fireballs flying towards her.

Dodging the fireballs and rounding a few corners she thought she lost the girl as she entered a death end. There was no door whatsoever. She actually hadn't seen any doors anyhow. The girl that attacked her earlier rounded the corner too. "Ah, there you are."

Will send a few lightning bolts her way and even pulled some metal loose and threw it at the girl, but she seemed to be able to magically block everything.

As she came closer the made a longer set of gestures and a large wall of fire appeared in front of her out of her hand. Will blocked her face from the flames, but noticed that the wall was going only as fast as the girl was walking. Will threw a few more bolts at the girl, but nothing worked. As the girl came closer Will felt the heat singe her skin. Will tried to teleport, but a sudden burst of pain in her neck prevented her from doing so. She couldn't telefold either.

The flames drew away her power and Will fell on her knees. She breathed heavily and sweat vaporised as soon as it appeared. Then, the wall of fire disappeared. The girl stepped closer and kneeled in front of Will.

"And, how is our Guardian leader doing?" She asked as she took Will by her cheeks. "Not so good, I see." Seeing the girls so close, Will could just see her fiery red eyes through the eye holes of her mask.

She turned Will's head with a strong motion, hurting Will. But the pain from her neck was way more.

"It's a shame you're so weak already. I was hoping you would put up more of a fight. Apparently not." She let go of Will's face by throwing her against the wall. She stood up. Will was barely conscious, but she noticed the girl breathing heavily.

The girl scolded and turned around to walk away only to stop a few steps later.

Will tried to stand up. She felt the desire to hit the girl. Instead she grimaced from the pain and exhaustion. She tried to contact Taranee through her mind. Will told her where she was and to avoid the girl. But more importantly to her; how to disable the spider. If Taranee could get a direct hit on the missiles, the spider wouldn't have real long range capabilities and the girls had more time to stop it.

Will let herself rest against the wall. She waited for the girl to leave, but she didn't. The girl crossed her arms as if she had a stomach ache. She scolded a lot and muttered to herself. She suddenly turned around. She made a few gestures and there was a sudden and short flame that robbed Will of all her resting powers. She felt light in her head and slid from the wall to the floor, which was still warm from the flame wall from earlier.

The girl suddenly grabbed Will and turned her on her back. Will tried to resist, but even with her best attempt she was no match for the girl.

The girl then laid Will out long and sat on Will's back and leaned forwards. She took her mask off and for a moment laid it next to Will on the floor. "I hate you, you know that?" The girl said softly. Her lips were close to Will's ears so it was loud enough despite the noise around her.

"I hate you so much… For being such a delicious…" The girl didn't finish her sentence and suddenly bit Will in the neck. Will startled as she felt the girl's teeth pierce her skin and her tongue move over her skin. She felt the girl sucking on the wound she caused. She made slight delighted sights as she sucked on the wound.

For a moment the girls were laying still. Will too weak to resist and the girl revelling in whatever she was doing. Will startled as she realised what this girl was; a vampire. An odd vampire, but she couldn't think of anything else that would drink blood with such delight.

After a few minutes the girl stopped. She didn't let go of Will and instead rested for a moment. She licked Will's neck rather extendedly and then turned her face so Will couldn't see the girl's face, but the other side of her neck was showing. The girl licked that side of Will's neck, where the wound had been.

The girl put her mask back on and stood up. "Well, what an interesting turn of events, wouldn't you think?" She said with a bit of delight in her voice.

Will turned to her side and looked at the girl. "Y-you're a vampire…"

The girl nodded. "Ah, so you noticed my little… drink? I hope you liked it, because in 72 hours, you'll really need to try it too! Sorry, but vampirism is just that contagious."

The girl stepped over Will and walked away. Will tried to grab a leg. But she failed to. Both the shock of knowing she was infected with vampires and the lack of energy were too much for her.

* * *

><p>When Will came by she noticed she was lying in bed. Her body was sore and she looked around her. She was in the infirmary of the castle. Light was shining through the windows and it was silent. The sounds of war were gone.<p>

The moment she groaned she heard a gasp. "Will! Are you all right?"

It was Taranee. As Will sat up and looked around she saw all the hurt men being treated here. "What happened?"

Taranee explained carefully that as soon as she heard Will's call for help, she had looked for her and found her. At the same time Cornelia, Hay Lin and Irma had worked together to bring the mega spider to a standstill. The whole thing collapsed and crushed a whole district, but it was fully disabled and couldn't do any harm anymore. After that, Will was brought here and the girl held off against the army, which without the mega spider and air support – Hay Lin did a fine job clearing the sky – were weakened a lot. The castle was breached but it wasn't long before the army retreated. During their retreat there were a lot of zeppelins with a lot of air defence that picked the troops and fallen up. A lot of the robots were scrapped together and lifted away while the girls couldn't do anything. Why they didn't attack with such superior power was beyond them.

In the end most of the robots were gone. But also most of the town. Parts of it were crushed, burned down or were otherwise unusable. But Taranee explained that most of it wasn't today's work.

"Will… Elyon said this wasn't the first attack."

Will looked surprised at her. "Not? But how? Why didn't she tell us earlier?"

Taranee looked away. "Elyon confessed that she didn't want to rely on the Guardians anymore and in the beginning there were only a few. They could hold them off, for the most part. But the army they faced today was triple the size of what attacked before combined."

Will didn't know if she wanted to scold Elyon or thank her. Not relying on them was a good think, sort off. The Guardians weren't there for everything. But this… An army out of nowhere led by a vampire girl, which wiped out almost all of Meridian. The girls couldn't let this one slide. Even though they had just beaten Phobos a few weeks before.

While Will didn't feel really great, she had to return home before her mother would realise she would be gone. Or worse; Lavanya. She was still laying in her bed.

Taranee helped Will get home. On earth it was a few hours earlier, so she still could catch a few hours of sleep. Will turned into human form, still in her pyjama's. She said goodbye to Taranee when she heard a sob from Lavanya.

"Lavanya's here?"

Will nodded. "Yeah, it's kind of an unplanned sleepover." She walked with Taranee to Lavanya and Will laid a hand on her shoulder. Lavanya was hugging one of Will's pillows and was crying silently. Will turned to Taranee. "Erm… It's better for you to leave. Sorry." Taranee gave her a smile of understanding and teleported back to her own bed.

Will climbed over Lavanya into her bed and crawled under the blankets. She tried not to wake Lavanya up, but Lavanya had her eyes already open. With a sob she took Will into a hug and held her close.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So many questions! Will is infected with vampirism thanks to her new enemy. Who is she anyhow? And where did she manage to get that giant army from? And what's up with that retreat of hers. She clearly has another large army up her sleeve! When will she attack again? And will everything be all right with Lavanya? And what's up with Will's lightning suddenly turning black? And wait, what's up with the wound Will had <em>before<em> the girl had bitten her? Continue reading and you'll find answers!**

**Thanks for reading and please like and subscribe! Oh, wait, this isn't youtube.  
>Please review to show your support! :3<br>Or just rant at me on how bad the spelling, grammar and the plot holes you're tripping in are. ;)**


	3. May I take a bite?

**Chapter 3: May I take a bite?**

Will strolled in her guardian from through the remains of Meridian's town centre. It had only been yesterday night that something terrible had happened. There was death and destruction all around her. She had seen civilians who lost their live during the previous violent episodes of Meridian; Phobos and Nerissa. But then it was nowhere as gruesome as now. Guns were by all means many times more gruesome than sword wounds and arrows. Especially since the size and power of the guns. Will often had to look away from the bodies. She pitied those who lost their lives, lost close ones and had to clean the bodies up.

The latter was a difficult task. The whole city was sacked but even though the castle was still standing, if they didn't hurry with the bodies, there would be a plague and the castle would have to be abandoned too.

Phobos… Nerissa… Both chose to conquer Metamoor and defeat Kandrakar from the shadows. Phobos wanted to trick Elyon to steal her powers at the coronation and Nerissa had helped the guardians only to help herself in the end. Even Cedric struck from the shadows.

But this girl… Whomever she was, she attacked openly. No schemes to trick Elyon into believing something or giving her powers up, or have the girls switch sides. An open assault. No, it couldn't be that simple. She had another goal, why else would she challenge Will like this. She bit her, gave her vampirism. Why?

Will gulped. Her hand went almost instantly towards her neck. She rubbed over her skin. Nothing. The girl had bitten her, but the wounds had disappeared. _Wounds_. Because what had happened to the injury that got her into that mess in the first place? And where had it come from in the first place?

For a moment an idiotic thought went through her mind. What if that was Lavanya's doing? No, it couldn't have been her. The girl in the mega spider had red hair and Lavanya brown. Besides, she had seen Lavanya walk in daylight. She could hardly be a vampire. Maybe it was the cloak and mask to shield her from the sun, but it would hardly work like that.

She would be one herself soon, if she would believe the girl. How long did she have? She didn't feel the need to drink blood or felt her teeth sharpen and sunlight didn't harm her. _Yet._

Will angrily kicked against a stone on the ground. Would she bother the girls with it? She didn't really know. It was somewhere… tempting not to. Not out of guilt; no. If she played into the hands of the girl, Will could set up a trap against her. She'd been utterly useless during Phobos' season and pretty much Nerissa's plaything the next season.

No. She had a problem and it was best to tell the girls about it. They were her friends none the less, right?

"Sorry guys, I'm going to turn into a vampire unless we find a cure. You won't hate me, will you? By the way, may I take a bite if I turn anyhow?" Will muttered cynically to herself, preparing herself jokingly to tell the girls about the situation. She sighed. However she was going to put it, it was best the best thing to do now.

Will turned around on her heels with a small smile on her face. Why go through the trouble of having a third life if it was just easier to tell them. They'd understand. Somewhat. But with Kandrakar backing them, a cure wouldn't be hard to find.

But as Will had turned around she startled. Without her knowing, the girl stood behind her. The same scaled hooded cloak and mask as before. The same bloody red hair. The same red eyes through the slits of her mask.

In an instance Will charged an electric charge up in her hand and punched the girl in her stomach. The girl took the hit, but it was Will who felt hurt. As if she was punching against the toughest steel in the world. Even her electric charge disappeared without ever going into the girl.

The girl threw a counter and with a few well-placed punches and a finishing kick to the stomach, Will flew back a few meters and landed on her back. The girl walked up to Will and placed her right foot on Will. Will tried to stand up, but the girl was impossibly strong.

"I wondered how my soon to be blood-sibling was doing, but then I heard you say you would try to cure it." She shook her head. "Sorry, but I simply _can't_ let that happen. We're going to be blood-sisters. Doesn't that sound _exciting_ to you?"

Will shook her head. "No! I'm going to tell the girls and there is nothing you can do about it! We'll beat you. Just as Phobos and Nerissa."

As Will tried to grab the girl's feet, the girl conjured four flames up which clasped around Will's ankles and wrists and held them to the ground. Though they weren't hot, just warm, she couldn't break free from them. She tried to charge her body up in an attempt to shock the girl's foot, but the charge left through the ground and the girl started laughing. "Rubber boots. Do you like them?"

Will found it hard to speak with the immense pressure of the girl weighting on her chest. Sh tried to take a breath as deep as she could to speak. "What do you want of me?"

The girl crouched and leaned with her face over Will's. "A deal; you do… things for me. And I'll cure you. A vampire can give and take early stages of vampirism. Oh, how inconvenient it is for you that this is the _only_ cure."

So the girl gave her vampirism as leverage.

"You see, don't think that magic can save you. If it could, so many innocent lives could have been saved. But it's a nasty thing… For those who view it as a curse. Me, I see it as a gift from the Gods. Or evolution. Or whatever. The best thing that happened in my life. So far. And my life is going to be better. And you are going to help me."

It would be too easy to say "never", Will thought. She had to admit; she was stuck. The girl had leverage on her and Will couldn't even throw a proper punch. She… had to play along. Just play. No way in hell she would do anything the girl asked from her.

"Are we clear?"

Will nodded silently in return.

The girl tilted her head a bit and then shook. "No, I don't think you realise it, do you. Wait, let me fetch an example."

The girl stood up and walked away. She suddenly ran off with incredible speed. The flames around Will's wrists and ankles remained. She wondered what the girl meant by 'fetch an example'.

Even if she couldn't move, it was best to call the girls out and ambush the girl. Before something worse happened.

As Will tried to telepathically reach out for the girls, she noticed the bracers of fire becoming hotter to the point where they started to hurt her. She could almost touch Taranee's mind when the flames started to singe her skin, at which point she couldn't focus her mind enough. But maybe it was enough to warn Taranee.

Will focused on her wounds. They weren't bad. But the markings where there. Cornelia could probably heal her, but the wounds would sting a bit until then.

After a while the girl returned. She held in her arms a girl, somewhere of the age of four. The girl put the little girl down on Will's left side and held her hand. The little girl looked scared at the girl, and hopeful at Will. "I want to go to my mommy. Please, help me." She begged Will.

Will gave her a smile, but then the girl crouched till her mask was at the same level as the little girl. "There is one thing you must know, Will. Nobody can know I exist. For now. Only you, because only you can help me. Sadly." The girl had suddenly become very seriously. The little girl started crying. She begged for her mom and asked Will, 'the great leader of the guardians' for help.

"What are you going to do with her?" Will asked. It had only appeared so suddenly. The killing intent. As if she understood what the girl was about to prove, Will realised what the girl wanted to do. "Why did you bring her here?"

"So… For the time being, you can't tell anyone about me. Not a name, not a description, not a clue. Nobody can know that my name is Ruby. You understand. Will. Do you? If you do, I'll kill that person. Without hesitation. If it is a friend, a loved one, the Oracle of Kandrakar. I. Don't. Care."

It was in her words. Will fully understood what point Ruby was trying to make and was about to do.. This realisation scared her. It was Will's fault. She should have tried to escape, even if the flames would have hurt her, she had to focus. She shouldn't have tried to get along with the girl. With her mind, Will fiercely tried to yell towards Taranee, but the flames around her wrists and ankles became really hot and tears sprung from her eyes. "Don't you dare!" Will cried. "You can't do that! She's a little girl! She wouldn't even be able to describe you, let alone remember your name! Please… I'll do everything… But don't…"

Ruby nodded. "You may go now." She let the hand of the girl go and stood up. The girl looked scared at Will and Will looked scared back.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Will said to the girl as she tried to hold a sob back, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything. There was no difference in the strength the little girl and Will when it came to standing up against Ruby. She was so wicked. Neither Phobos or Nerissa had done something like this. Maybe Cedric by eating Phobos, but this was a little girl. Not the prince of darkness.

The girl took off and ran away as best as she could. She tripped a few times but her fear made her immune to the pain of the fall and she stood up and ran away. When she was only a few ten meters away, Ruby aimed her arm at the girl. "How sad… She knows who I am…" She said with an almost genuinely sad voice.

"No! Don't you dare! Don't you dare hurt her!" Will cried. "I'll do everything! But please! Don't hurt her! She's but a child! Everything! I swear!" Ruby seemed to ignore her and keep her word. Flames started appear around her arm and gathered in the palm of her hand as a ball of fire. Will felt she had no choice. It was dangerous to do it but she couldn't let a little girl get hurt like this, because she wasn't strong enough. "I swear on the Heart of Kandrakar! Just don't hurt her!"

It was a tense moment. A moment that dragged on for an infinite amount of time. The moment where Ruby would choose to hurt or not to hurt the little girl.

Through the blurriness of her tears, Will could just make out that Ruby lowered her arm, the flames dissipated and she looked Will back in her eyes. "Are you sure? That's quite the offer you are making me. Disobey me and I'll get the Heart. Oh but now I almost _wish_ you'd disobey me. But then, would that make you happy?"

"I don't care…" Will muttered. "Just… Don't hurt her… Let her go… She won't tell anyone, I promise."

There was a moment of silence before Ruby replied. "I accept your offer."

With a snip of her fingers the fire bracelets disappeared from Will's hands. Both happy to be free and knowing that the girl was save, she smiled. She sat up and held her knees close to her. She rested her arms on her knees and cried on them. How weak was she? How pathetic. Why did things have to go this way? If she could have just turned around and fly to Taranee, instead of being held by Ruby. She was a girl. But even so she was a vampire and might be centuries old, knowing things nobody knew. What drove her to this? What was it that only Will could give her, from all people in the universe?

Will looked up at Ruby. She shook her head. "I hate you…" She muttered. "I hate you so much."

Ruby turned to Will and grabbed by her hair and pulled her up using incredible strength. When Will was on her feet, Ruby let go of her. "So this is the great leader of the Guardians of Kandrakar. A pathetic cry baby. Nerissa was _so_ much more, you know that? _She_ was strong. You should have looked up to her. The things she could do…"

Will wanted to punch her with all her might. But even if she could find the strength, she was scared to make Ruby even angrier. She couldn't harm her, no matter how much her heart begged her to. Her limbs just went numb with fear.

"Let us see how true your word is." Ruby said. As much as Will guessed, it was her first 'command' from Ruby.

_"Kill her." _

"W-what?"

"I said; kill her. The little girl. I promised not to hurt her and you will do what I say. And I say; kill her."

Will blinked a few times and shook her head wildly. Something big just smashed the reality of her live. And was nothing left of it. Just shards spread over the floor. And in each shard she could see the mask and the eyes of Ruby. She was a monster. Phobos and Nerissa paled in comparison to her.

Will thought she just saved the girl. But instead she doomed both of them.

"Y-you can't ask that of me. I just…" Will muttered. "You can't do that!"

Ruby grabbed Will at her throat. "I think I can't hear you very well. Did you just say you're _not_ going to do it? Or would you rather fortify your heart to me?"

Will grabbed Ruby's wrists and while choking she tried to get some space, but Ruby was just too strong. Ruby outwitted her in everything. Will made the same mistake as with Nerissa the first time she made such a promise.

Ruby let go of Will and she felt couching on the ground. "Kill the girl or I'll use the Heart to destroy everything you hold dear. Heatherfield, Fadden Hills, your best friends, your family. Is that what you want?"

Will looked up at Ruby. Her eyes almost radiating hatred and disgust. She didn't say anything before her troth was clear again. It gave her a moment to think. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Wasn't that a proverb? Would Will really kill a little girl to save a whole world?

For a moment it flashed by her that she might somehow delay things a lot and hope that Taranee noticed her. Or any of the girls, really. But seeing as how strong Ruby was, she feared that the whole group of WITCH could be in trouble. Flying away wasn't an option either. Either Ruby would shoot her out of the air and grab the Heart or she would fail her promise and the Heart would 'willingly' give itself to Ruby.

Will's best hope was that by doing as Ruby asked her, she could win time. By defying her she would doom the world in an instant. But she could buy it time. Buy everyone time. Make up some plan and capture or neutralize Ruby. Somehow.

Will took a deep breath, as if her decision hadn't fully reached her yet. But she had made it. She had to make it. She couldn't come up with any better choice.

"Look at it from the bright side; kill her now and she won't spread my name. Only one person has to die today, only-"

"I'll do it."

Will looked up again. She was terrified. Of Ruby, of herself, what she was about to do. She would fall in abyss. She knew it. She tried to strengthen her heart with the lie that it wasn't for greed, like Nerissa, but to save people. She would kill to save… How stupid could she be. How stupid had she been…

"Good girl." Ruby said, padding Will on the back. "Just a little spark through her brains. Or her heart. Or maybe strangle her? As long as she-"

"I said I'd do it." Will muttered annoyed.

She walked past Ruby and headed in the direction the girl had gone. She had come surprisingly far for a little girl. But where had she gone? Where could she have gone in all this mess?

She felt mindless, thinking like that. 'where is the person I'm going to murder'. Will cried to herself. Blaming herself for her weakness.

It wasn't long before she heard a door open from one of the houses that had managed to survive. A woman had opened it. Next to her stood the little girl from just ago. The woman waved. "Thank you for bringing my little girl back!" she said, with a smile on her face.

Will blinked. She scolded with every word she knew. It had been clear for her the moment she saw the woman with the girl. Will could almost imagine Ruby saying 'Oh dear. She told someone of me.'

The woman stopped waving as she saw Will's terrible stat. She walked up to Will and laid her hands on her. "Are you all right?"

Will didn't react. Her mind was processing the shock. Maybe she was already in shock.

Instead of one little girl, she had to kill her mother too. She only had to kill the little girl, but Ruby would kill the mother too, or even worst; demand Will to do it. There was no going around that.

The woman worried about Will and guided Will into her house. Will mindlessly obeyed, much like she did with Ruby. The woman put Will down in a chair in front of a family table. The woman spoke to Will, but Will didn't react. Her mind was boggled with what she was about to do. Her eyes looked around to see if there was someone else there too. But there didn't seem to be anyone besides the woman and the girl.

Will felt a charge rise up in her body. The woman jumped startled back. "A-are you all right?"

Will looked at the woman. She cried, warm tears running over her cheeks. "I'm so sorry… I… wish it… I'm so sorry."

She pointed her arm in the direction of the woman and for a moment her mind went blank as the lightning jumped from her fingertips to the woman. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Will didn't know when to stop. She had never killed anyone with her powers, so she didn't know.

She didn't know how long she was going on, but she stopped and her mind turned back on. She blinked a few times, and looked horrified at the woman. She was badly burned and lay on the floor. It was too gruesome for Will to look at and her mind almost filtered the image out her mind, as if there was nothing going on.

The girl ran up to her mother and started to cry. "Mommy! Mommy!"

Will aimed her arms at the little girl and her mind went blank again. She only realised what she was doing when she found herself drained too much. Her eyes were fixed on the two bodies in front of her, but she somehow couldn't register what just had happened. What just had happened.

All she wanted to do was to lay down, cry and sleep.

She stood clumsily up and managed to find the stairs. She walked up to them and found a room with a bed. The bed was neatly made up probably by the woman this morning. It almost felt rude to try to sleep there. But she didn't care for the moment.

She stumbled through the door and found she turned back to her human form. When she was next to the bed she let herself fall. She hit her head on the pillow and slowly moved her legs up the bed and took the blankets in her arms. She hugged them close. She trembled. Of fear and disgust of herself. "What have I done?"

As she started to cry herself to sleep, the trembling stopped. She was too tired for that.

* * *

><p>A while later she found herself waking partially up. She looked a bit into the room and saw Ruby stand there. In her stupid cloak with her stupid mask. Will hated her. Every bit of her. And if she could, she would kill <em>her<em>. She had already taken two lives, God wouldn't mind if she took a third, would he? Especially not someone like Ruby.

Ruby sat down on the bed and pushed Will on her back. She didn't resist at all. She was too tired and too scared to do anything in return.

Ruby then sat on her hands and knees over Will. She pushed Will's face away and covered her eyes. Much like in the mega spider, Ruby would use this chance to drink Will's blood. And she did. Will could feel Ruby's tongue like over her skin a few times before she felt a kiss in her neck, followed by a strong bite that pierced her skin. Will felt the tugging of Ruby's mouth. She felt lightheaded but for some reason, it also felt a little good. She didn't know why, but it felt somehow good. Was it because she was broken after her murders? Was she growing so wicked that she would take pleasure in such vile things?

When Ruby stopped sucking, she let go of Will's skin with her teeth and after a few licks, she let go of her all together.

Ruby said something, but not everything registered. All she could make out was "See, that wasn't so though?"

When Ruby left the room Will cried again. As she sobbed, a miserable stench of death entered her nose and there was a sudden urge to throw up. And she did. It was a miracle she hadn't thrown up earlier, but she guessed her mind was too numb then.

After throwing up, Will stood up and took the Heart out. She had to get out of here. She wanted to go home. For a moment, she didn't care about the girls. They had Blunk. Will opened a fold to her room and closed it after passing through. She peeked at her frog clock on her desk and noticed it was 20:00 already. She went to the kitchen, only to find Taranee, Lavanya and Susan sitting there. Will could just overhear them say "I don't get where Will is. She didn't say anything about coming home this late."

The three in the kitchen all looked startled at Will. All three women were almost synchronous when they stood up and hurried to Will. She had puffy cheeks and red eyes and was really pale. She still sobbed now and then.

Susan was the first to take Will in a hug "Where have you been? Your friends have been looking for you all evening."

"Sorry mom." Will could barely make out between two sobs.

Taranee and Lavanya stood close to her. They looked worried at Will, mouthing some things to each other. Will couldn't hear it. She couldn't even hear Susan ramble both angrily and worriedly. After Susan felt Will's forehead, she could hear her mother say "I'm calling Dean, you're not going to school tomorrow."

Susan then, with the help of Lavanya and Taranee, helped Will change into her pyjama and into her bed. Susan left the room to arrange school and some.

Taranee sat down next to Will and Lavanya took a chair backwards and rested her arms and head on the back.

Will didn't know if she had to feel comforted or scared by their presence. But she cried and sobbed anyway. And when Susan came with some soup for dinner, Lavanya and Taranee helped Will take it in, only to have it thrown out again 15 minutes later.

The girls remained silent as they watched over Will. Their worried glances scared Will. She wasn't worthy of those glances. But it also meant that they were her friends. She couldn't tell them what happened without fearing for their lives. But that didn't mean they weren't her friends.

After a while Taranee got an angry call that she was supposed to come home. Before Taranee left, Will found the courage to say "thanks". Both for supporting her and not asking anything, although Taranee couldn't possibly know the latter.

Lavanya left only five minutes later. But before she left, she laid a hand on Will's shoulder and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Sleep well." She said with a smile.

Not long after Lavanya left, Will fell asleep again.

* * *

><p>Will's dreams only consisted out of nightmares. She could still see the faces of the woman and the child whose life she had taken. All she could remember was when she charged her bolt up and when she stopped. What happened in between was a blank in her mind. A blank her dreams would happily fill with the worst thoughts imaginable. The terrible things the two had to endure as they died at Will's hands.<p>

She didn't hope it was painless. She hoped that the nightmares were just that, nightmares. Not a replay of what had happened in real life. She would open her eyes and they would live and Ruby wouldn't exist. That Meridian wasn't destroyed and that the universe wouldn't need the Guardians every week.

But she knew, deep down, even in her dreams, that this wasn't the case. Meridian was sacked, Kandrakar was destroyed, Ruby existed and forced Will to kill two innocent people. Ruby existed and Will couldn't tell anyone or else Ruby would kill them. Or worse; force her to do it. But would she rather give up the Heart? No, because then Ruby would win. What she would do Will didn't know, but it wasn't going to be a good thing if Ruby had sacked Meridian for it.

* * *

><p>It was only in the earliest of midnight when Will woke up. As her eyes opened and she could feel her body again, her first reaction was to throw up. Her stomach was already emptied the evening before, but even if nothing came out, she had to endure the contraction of her stomach.<p>

She cried. Out of pain and out of misery.

She was clueless what to do. What could she do?

After a few minutes of restlessness in both her body and her mind, Will stood up and went to the kitchen to fetch some water. She was clamp and her bed was too warm. She felt some freedom of movement would do her better.

As she entered the main room, Will flicked the switch and in an instant the room was lit. She was blinded for a moment. It was pitch black outside and the windows became mirrors. As Will moved to the sink, she noticed her face. She didn't look good at all. She blinked a few times and sometimes she could see the faces of the woman or the child. Charred skin and white eyes. In the distance she could hear the disgusting sounds echo through her mind.

"I'm sorry…" Will muttered to the windows, to the darkness outside.

She tapped some water in a glass and took a large sip. The cold water felt refreshing to her throat and stomach.

Will looked back into the mirror. She poured a bit if the water from the glass in her left hand and slashed it in her face. Using a towel she dried herself off. As if she was trying to clean up her face. Although the water felt nice, she towel stung her cheeks due to the salty tears she had been crying all night. A little gasp escaped her lips as she tried to dry her cheeks.

With the towel still in her hands she looked back into the mirroring window. For a moment she could see Nerissa and wondered what she had thought when she had pushed Cassidy off the cliff. It was out of pure greed. But Cassidy was also her best friend. Had Nerissa ever regretted killing Cassidy? Her actions spoke of not, but Will still wondered. Had Nerissa any regret?

Will took the Heart out from under het top and noticed it was a little grim. She hadn't noticed it up until now, but the pink light had darkened to a more purple hue.

Will started to sob. "So I am going to become like Nerissa…" She muttered to the Heart. She shook her head, her mind jumping to the thoughts of what might happen in the future. What if Ruby asked to kill the other people? Her friends, her family.

Their greatest threat wasn't Ruby, but Will herself. Ruby could ask her to backstab everyone she loved or held dear. And for what? What did Ruby want from her?

Will shook her head. She couldn't let that happen. There had to be a way to prevent that from happening.

For a moment the thought of suicide came to her mind, but the thought scared Will and she shook it away. No, the Heart would become without an owner and Ruby could easily grab it. Maybe that was Ruby's goal? To make her miserable enough to take her own life?

But why not kill her directly then? No, Will's death had no connection to Ruby's plan, but suicide was something Will didn't want to consider at the moment.

Another thought was to go to Kandrakar. Even in its weakened state it was a fortress in the middle of Infinity. Although Ruby could just go to Blunk and steal his Tunga tooth and fold to Kandrakar. She did have an army and could use Phobos' portal to Kandrakar. But then again, if she were to tell Kandrakar about Ruby's existence, everyone would know. Will alone could only spread the word so far before Ruby could react, but from Kandrakar out the whole universe would know of Ruby's existence.

It was pretty much her only plan. Go to Kandrakar and tell them about Ruby and her evil. It wouldn't be that hard and Ruby couldn't possible stop Will. A slash in the air and a step forwards was all Will needed. Could Ruby really react so quickly? There was only one way to find out.

Will turned around and hoped that the Heart would still work for her. She tried to make a fold, but the first time it didn't work. Hoping she failed to use the right spell she tried again. But after a few times it was clear the Heart wouldn't listen to her anymore.

"No. no-no-no. Please. One more fold. I won't turn into another Nerissa, I promise. But I need to get to Kandrakar for that!"

As if the Heart truly listened, it turned slightly pinker again. Will tried to make the fold again and it worked. The bluish tear in the air appeared and shun a strong light through the room. For a moment Will forgot that she had to be quick, she smiled and thanked the Heart for listening.

But something appeared in the room next to her. It started as a small flame mid-air, before bursting into a ball of fire. The flash and the heat distracted Will for a moment and she realised she was wrong; Ruby could appear here in a moment's notice.

"Oh no, you won't!" Ruby yelled as she stormed through the room towards Will. Will took a leap of faith and jumped as fast as she could through the fold. Ruby was quick, but she was too late to catch Will.

Will landed with her front on marble tiles. Although her body hurt a bit and her heart was racing in her throat, she smiled. She was in Kandrakar.

She turned around and made a move to close the fold. But it was too late. Ruby had already stepped halfway through the portal and by the time the fold had closed completely, only the end of her cloak had was caught in the closing fold and was cut off.

Will turned to her front again and tried to crawl away from Ruby.

"I can't believe you still didn't get the idea."

Will felt Ruby's boot on her back and a moment after four flames trapped her arms and legs in place. Just like in Meridian, except this time she was faced down and not in her Guardian from.

Remembering her human state, she tried to transform, but the Heart wouldn't listen. Will begged it to listen to her, but it wouldn't. Despite that it had a bright pink hue.

If she had just been that second faster, either Ruby was caught in the closing fold or locked out of Kandrakar altogether.

"What did I tell you?" Ruby asked as she sat down on Will's back.

Will ignored her question. She had realised something; why had Ruby tried to stop her from coming to this place? Because she feared Kandrakar. It made sense. It would make even more sense for her to yell for help. She didn't know if the portal was still open, but Ruby had to flee either way.

Will took a deep breath and yelled the hardest she could. Her voice was harder than she could remember and her voice echoed through the marble fortress.

"It's over. Admit it. You can't fight these guys, can you? You'll run. And I'll tell them _everything._ And even if you kill me, they'll find you. You've been here, they've already sensed you. Give up, before it's too late." Will said, trying to anger or frighten Ruby. But it did neither of those. Instead of doing something 'smart' like running away, she snickered.

"I admit. I can't fight these guys. _But_ sadly for you, that's because I've no corporal form in this realm. They can't notice my presence here. Neither see, nor feel, nor hear me." Ruby replied. "The only problem here is _you._ You'll try and tell them, won't you?"

Will didn't understand what was going on. What did Ruby mean with 'not having a corporal form' in Kandrakar? And if that was true, why could she hurt Will? Why could _she_ feel and hear Ruby?

Ruby remained silent and so did Will. Waiting for what was about to happen. What would Ruby do when the council arrived.

After a few minutes of silence Will yelled again. But this time Ruby laughed out loud. "You don't get it, do you?"

When Will's voice had turned hoarse, she stopped. It felt so awkward. Ruby sitting on her back and letting her yell all she wished. But why? Wasn't she supposed to stop Will from getting help.

She smiled as she could hear footsteps in the distance. They slowly came closer, instead of running. Maybe they were cautious?

When the footsteps had come closer, she could see Halinoor and Tibor walking towards her as if nothing was going on, although they had worried expressions on their faces.

When they came closer, Tibor pointed towards Will and spoke calmly to Halinoor. "So I was right. I did feel it."

"Halinoor! Tibor!" Will yelled smiling. "You've got to help me! There is this girl and-…" Will's words slowly trailed off as neither of the two elderly reacted to her words. Despite lying awkward on the ground, they seemed to ignored Will.

They did walk up to her, but only to grab the Heart and look at it. "This is strange. Why would the Heart of Kandrakar be here? And where is her keeper?" Halinoor asked. She looked around but turned confused to Tibor.

Will startled and she could hear Ruby laugh.

"No. No! Guys! I'm right here! Please!" Will begged. But the two still ignored her. It was almost an complete explanation of what happened; Will was just like Ruby now. She wasn't 'corporal' in Kandrakar, as Ruby had explained it for herself. Was it due to the vampirism?

No matter the cause, this was a major setback. Kandrakar had taken the Heart and Will couldn't ask it back. But Ruby couldn't steal it either and it didn't bother her. Didn't she have any interest in the Heart at all?

Halinoor walked up to the portal and closed it. "We better report this to the Oracle." And as Tibor agreed, they walked back. As if Will hadn't existed at all.

Will rested her head defeated on the tiles.

"What an unexpected surprise. I was really worried there for a moment. But it turns out the Stars really favour me!" Ruby laughed relieved. She stood up and released Will from her bonds. Will turned to her side. Cursing herself. Such a simple plan failed miserably.

"What is it that you want so badly?" Will muttered. "Me? Why am I so important to you, and not the Heart."

She heard Ruby sit down behind her and felt her warm hand in the nape of her neck. She pulled the shoulder of Will's pyjama bare.

"And how are we supposed to get back to Earth? I've no way of creating a fold for us and we can't ask Kandrakar to make us one."

"'t Is true that we're supposed to be stuck here. If it wasn't for you." Ruby revealed. "I'm after you because there is great potential hidden in you. In all your four pieces. I'm not sure why and I don't care either. But know I'm after that power. And one day I'll extract it from you and I'll get my wish."

Will was surprised to hear Ruby speak so tender. It almost gave Will an awkward feeling. She was too weak to do anything and was a plaything under Ruby's hands.

"Then why won't you do it now? I'm weak and nobody will bother you here."

"Because you aren't ready yet. No. I'll wait for the perfect moment and steal _all of it._" Will could hear a metal clicking sound and a moment later she felt Ruby's teeth on her skin. It was almost routine to Will. Her heart remained calm and she didn't even gasp as Ruby penetrated her skin. She did feel lightheaded. But a different kind of lightheaded. There was no headache at all. Instead, she felt clearing up. The fog of her mind dispersed slowly. It didn't make sense to her.

Will also noticed that Ruby had much less delight in drinking her blood than usual. It was apparently so bad that she heard Ruby spit it out again and felt her shudder against her.

But Ruby bit her again and after a few more sips and spitting out Will's blood, Ruby stopped and clipped the lower piece of her mask back on. "That should do the trick." Ruby muttered. "It should be a few moments from now before the paradox sends us home."

Will slowly sat up. For a moment she looked confused at Ruby. "Who are you? What are you trying to do?"

Despite having a mask, Will noticed Ruby had a smile. There was a sparkle in her eyes. "You silly, stupid girl…" Ruby muttered. She took her cape in her hands and clipped a metal piece from the lower part off. "And please, for once, remember… Don't speak to anyone about this. Got it? One false move and I'll kill them. Everyone you love. Close to you. Your boyfriend, your friends, your hamster. _Everyone_."

Ruby didn't give Will the chance to reply and slammed the flat side of the scale against the side of Will's head, almost instantly knocking her out.

Will's hit the ground not too hard. She found it hard to keep her eyes open. In last moments of her conscious state, she could see specks of her blood, mixed with a clear white liquid.

* * *

><p>When Will opened her eyes again, she could only see the brightness in front of her and the contrast of a dark shadow in front of her.<p>

The dirt in her eyes cleared and as her eyes adjusted to the morning light flowing in through her room, she noticed Lavanya sitting on her chair in front of her desk, sleeping with her head on her crossed arms on a thick book.

One moment Will feared that the book meant homework, but the next moment she recalled tonight's ordeal. She had been to Kandrakar and lost to Ruby, who knocked her out. As she recalled more of the night, she could feel a headache press against her skull. As she went and felt her head, she noticed it was bandaged.

She then realised she was back home again. For how long had she been here? Had her mother noticed she was gone? And…

Will stopped asking questions as her mind throbbed with each question and heartbeat.

She turned to look at Lavanya. She wondered what the girl was doing here. But instead of waking her up, Will felt no energy in her body and wanted to rest some more. However, the headache prevented her from returning to sleep. But at least she didn't felt as haunted by the images of whose life she took.

A while after Will woke up, Lavanya woke up too. She stretched herself out long and yawned widely, her mouth wide open, causing a strong contrast with her teeth against a bright background. If it wasn't for her headache, Will would have been sure they were very catlike.

Lavanya turned to Will and gasped embarrassed, almost squealing. It was almost cute. "Oh, hey. You're awake."

Will nodded. "How long have you been here?"

Lavanya looked at her wrist watch. "Erm… About an hour or so. I wanted to wait for you to wake up, but… I kind of fell asleep…"

"I noticed." Will teased. She tried to sit up, but found it was very hard and painful to do so. Suddenly, Lavanya rushed to her and pushed her down.

"You're better off laying down." Lavanya said. "Your mom told me what happened. You are lucky your skull is still in one piece after hitting the table."

"Hitting… The table?" Will wondered confused. She lay back down and Lavanya helped her tuck in again. It felt a bit awkward to Will, since the last few times she couldn't move was due to Ruby.

"Yeah. I suppose you don't remember, but your mother found you unconscious on the ground. She found you in the kitchen after the fire alarm went off. She doesn't know why the fire alarm went off, but you're sure lucky it happened, else you'd… You know, would have been off worse."

Will felt her head. Really, this wasn't the worst she had been in. Only a few hours before she lost the Heart and now she can't fetch it, nor enter Kandrakar anymore due to Ruby infecting her with vampirism, to which she still didn't know a cure, or when she would turn into a vampire.

The two girl were silent for a moment, until Lavanya broke the silence. "So…Uhm…" At the same time she took the book from Will's desk, took a chair, put it next to Will's bed and sat down, hugging the book close to her.

"I wanted to ask…" Lavanya muttered. "I noticed you…"

She sighed and muttered a few things to herself, which Will couldn't completely hear.

Lavanya took a deep breath. "Are you a Guardian of Kandrakar?"

Will gasped as she heard Lavanya say that name. How did she know about that? Had Will been incautious or did Lavanya really trail them like the other girls feared? Was she actually Ruby?!

Lavanya startled and pushed Will down and in a hushed voice said "I take that as a yes." She then grimaced. "Erm… yeah… So… Guardians… You're one of them…"

Will looked confused at her. "How… How did you know?"

Lavanya shot her a small smile. "Well… By accident… You know I live in Ludmoore's villa, right? And I spend some of my time reading his books… Well, he has this fascination for the Guardians and... sometimes describes this jewel. The Heart of Kandrakar. And I saw you with it… So I thought… You know… You're one of them."

Will closed her eyes, let her head sink into the pillow and took a deep breath. Things had just become more complicated than they already were. How would she deal with _this_. Her old friend knew about her secret. By accident, but Ruby wouldn't care.

Will settled with what she would tell Lavanya. "Listen. You're correct. I _am_ a Guardian… But I beg you. Put that book away and never speak of it again. Okay? I don't know what you know, but…"

_'There is someone after me and she'll kill you if you figure out to much.'_ Will thought, instead of saying. Fearing that might be already too much information.

Lavanya was a little startled. "Is there someone after you? Is that why you're hurt so badly?"

A fear suddenly crept down Will's spine and it was followed by an intense feeling of fear. She could already see Ruby's flames around Lavanya. Or her own sparks electrocute her friend. Will already saw the whole ordeal before her eyes. Before she knew it, she was already crying. "Shut up!" Will cried as she tried to get up. Her mind was set on preventing Lavanya's mouth to say anything further, even though her body would barely move.

Lavanya suddenly stood up and laid the book aside. "Okay. I'll shut up. The book's gone. Will. It's all right!" She said, trying to calm Will down. Will felt she couldn't fight against Lavanya's strength somehow. She quickly became tired enough that she could barely move. Her heart was throbbing in her throat and her breathing was uncontrollably. Lavanya looked panicking around.

She noticed Lavanya putting something in her mouth and suddenly bringing her head closer to Will's face.

_'Wait, what are you-'_ Will thought, but she was interrupted as she felt Lavanya's lips on hers. At first it seemed like a kiss of life, which was odd, especially when Will felt Lavanya's tongue enter her. The gesture was followed by an extremely spicy flavour in her mouth. It was so spicy her mouth became instantly numb to any feeling. The numb feeling then spread throughout her body. Within a minute her body stopped trembling, paralyzing Will completely.

Will noticed how Lavanya hadn't released her lips and but was breathing gently into her mouth while pinching her nose closed. So it was a kiss of life anyhow, even though it was a strange one. Where did the spice come from? Why was she paralyzed?

Lavanya took her lips a moment off Will's and used her fingers to awkwardly fish a small branch out of her mouth. After which Lavanya gave her another kiss of life for the next few minutes. Will slowly regained control over her body and took the breathing over from Lavanya. Will thought Lavanya didn't get the cue as it took her a moment to stop. Before backing away, Lavanya smiled shyly.

As the feeling got back to Will's body, she tried to sit up which happened without pain. Lavanya pushed her back again. "Don't. You'll regret it."

Will looked confused at Lavanya, who had a blush on her cheeks. "What was that?"

"Its… I poisoned you. Okay. That was a herb used to paralyze people. You won't feel pain, but it'll come back double when it wears out completely."

Will rose an eyebrow. "Why are you having… "

Lavanya turned back to Will, looking far more serious. "A favour for a favour, right. I won't talk about the G-word, and you won't ask anything about this."

"T…Thanks. I think…" Will said confused.

Suddenly Lavanya stood up, grabbed her book, put it in her bag and left hastily. "I've got to go. Bye."

"Wait! Lavanya!" Will's words were replied with a door closing. Only to have a few moments later her mother walk in.

She looked worried at Will, back into the apartment and then back at Will. "Is everything all right?"

Will nodded. "Yeah…"

Susan walked in and sat down next to Will. She lay a hand on her chest and smiled. "Honey, if there is anything wrong, just tell me. What happened yesterday to you? Don't tell me Matt broke up with you." Susan smiled caringly, almost jokingly.

Will shook her head. "No… It's nothing like that…"

_'I killed two people and everyone I know is in danger…'_ She thought sarcastically. It was the truth though. At that hurt her. She couldn't even tell her friends and just moments ago her old friend had become involved. She wished Lavanya wouldn't do anything stupid and figure what the truth was.

It was till awkward. From all the things Lavanya could have done, it was poisoning her and… It didn't make any sense at all!

Will noticed Susan asked something and her mind tuned in just in time to hear it. "Were you assaulted…?"

"No, mom… I'm… " Will wanted to say 'fine', but her mother knew she wasn't, so saying it was a waste of breath. "It's nothing you should worry about."

Susan sighed and looked forwards and shook her head. "If you don't tell me anything, I can't do anything for you, you know that, right?"

Will held her tongue. She didn't really know what to say in return. She couldn't tell her mom. Although she could somewhere see Susan become over protective and kick Ruby's butt. The images made Will smile.

"Well, I'm glad you can still smile." Susan said, slightly relieved. She bent forwards and kissed Will's forehead. "I'll come later with some breakfast." She stood up and left the room.

Despite the joyous thought of a moment ago, it did make Will realise that _she_ wasn't strong enough to handle Ruby. It made her cry. As the pain from her body started to come up again, she couldn't hold her tears back anymore.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So… That was… Erm…**

**Will lost the Heart of Kandrakar, she's thinking she's turning into Nerissa. She cant tell anyone. Lavanya just frenched Will (Okay, kiss of life-ish - Yes, I also just finished Doctor Who) _and _she knows that Will is a Guardian. Well, _was_ since she doesn't have the Heart anymore and apparently she's invisible in Kandrakar. And how did Ruby get them back and what else is she doing and why is Will and this and that and... ARG!**

**WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?**

**That last one pretty much sums all your questions up, doesn't it?**

**Well, for more questions - I mean the answers to these question; continue on reading because there is a lot to explain!**

**Thanks for reading and please review! (Like how wicked it was to have Will kill two people, or how there might be a romance between Lavanya and Will *wink* *wink* )**


	4. With no heart to linger

**Chapter 4: With no heart to linger**

**A/N: I actually pulled out the OST of Elven Lied AND Keepsake for this one. Guard your heart, you have been warned.**

* * *

><p>Will looked around for a moment. Irma, Cornelia, Taranee, Hay Lin and Lavanya were all sitting in various places in her room. She herself was sitting upright in her bed, her pillow supporting her back against the wall.<p>

The girls had gathered to speak about what was going on for the past few days. They surely had to know by now that something was off with both Will and everything around her. One of the reasons was because she called them – except for Lavanya –by phone, not through telepathy. Since the Heart was gone, Will had lost almost all of her powers. She could still conjure electricity up, but everything else was gone.

The first thing she wanted out of the way was Lavanya's presence. The girls had silently waited for Will to explain the new comer sitting here.

Will turned to Lavanya and then took a look at each of the girls. "So… The first thing I wanted to talk about is why Lavanya is here… " She said. "Lavanya." She added, as a sign for her to talk.

"Yes, so uhm…" Lavanya shyly looked down. "I know you're Guardians."

The girls looked a bit startled at Will.

"Will! I thought we weren't supposed to tell anyone about our-" Cornelia began, but Will cut her off before she ranted on.

"She never told me anything!" Lavanya said in Will's defense. "I just happen to know."

The girls turned to Lavanya. "What do you mean?" Taranee asked first.

"I… Have books at my place. And they talk about the Guardians in great detail. At least, your predecessors, CHYKN. I noticed Will's necklace and your… friendship. No means to insult, but it was quickly quite obvious. Five girls being really close with one of them having the Heart?" Lavanya grinned a bit. "But don't worry, I won't tell anyone. _Right_, Will?"

"And how can we trust you?" Cornelia asked.

Lavanya shrugged. "Will…Used to be my best friend. I suppose that should vouch for that."

There was a bit of looking around the group before Hay Lin said "Well, if Will says you're to be trusted, then I suppose… We will…"

The girls looked a bit around, trying to analyse the situation for their own. When Irma agreed with what Hay Lin said, Taranee and Cornelia followed.

Will sighed for herself and looked with a smile at Lavanya. At least that was out of the way. Almost. Sure, there was still some misplaced trust towards Lavanya, but now that everyone knew Lavanya knew their second life it wouldn't be as a shock would they discover on their own.

Will took a deep breath as she, for a moment, considered the next issue. The Heart not being with her and Ruby. She couldn't talk openly about Ruby, it'd mean the death of all of them. Will was scared of her. Ruby successfully intimidated her into believing Ruby was the stronger of the two. But she hadn't yet gotten Will fully under control.

And there was another thing, something she thought off at night. By adding Lavanya into this conversation, she could run checks whether she was Ruby or not. While it would surprise her if the two were anyhow connected, she'd rather not leave this problem too open. Or else Ruby or Lavanya might slip in and take advantage of that. She would try to accomplish this by talking about Ruby in a more shady way, skipping over the surface of the subject. But it was risky. She could trouble her friends or worse, end up killing them right here, right now. Will had seen Ruby's powers. She was always watching her and she could be here in an instance. Ruby could even get out of Kandrakar. How she managed to Will didn't quite yet understand. She only remembered barely Ruby speaking about a paradox. But what paradox?

"Will?"

Will felt something shudder her shoulder. Will looked startled up from thoughts. Hay Lin was sitting on the side of her bed, holding her shoulder. She looked worried. Will tried to assure her with a smile. "Sorry. I was… thinking."

Hay Lin returned to her place worried.

"For the rest of why I called you… I need you guys to make a promise. All five of you." Will said, looking at Lavanya, she then looked at the others, but still keeping an eye out for Lavanya. "You probably noticed… Strange things happening around me. I need you to promise not to look into the whole ordeal in Meridian, _or me_, any further."

The five girls looked rather surprised and startled at Will. "Uhh… What?" Irma asked out surprised.

"I know it sounds hard to believe, but I'm currently caught into something… That might kill you. Promise me not to ask more or look into it yourself. I'm already risking our lives warning you guys. I can't lose you guys too because of something stupid…"

"What do you mean?" Taranee asked.

"I… Thanks to that something, I lost the Heart. I suspect the Oracle having it by now." Will explained. "I can't tell you how I lost it. That's part of the… Secret I have to keep."

Irma grinned. "Come on Will! Whatever is bothering you, we'll get the Heart and kick his ass!"

Will shook her head. "Don't." To her surprise, Lavanya said the same thing at the same time. Lavanya shot Will a smile and took the answer over.

"I was with Will yesterday and talked with her about you guys being a Guardian. I don't know why, but she got a genuine panic attack. Something is scaring the living hell out of her and it's that what's haunting her. It's not something you guys are ready to deal with. I've had experience with scary things and believe me, whatever got Will scared… Don't look in it any further. Not only will you harm Will's mentally, you'll be putting yourself and those around you in great danger." Lavanya explained.

"It can't be scarier than Phobos, Cedric and Nerissa combined." Irma said.

"Well, whatever it was… It scarred Will enough to get panic attacks from it. Whatever is haunting her, it's worse than those three combined." Lavanya said. "If Will hadn't had nightmares before from them, she sure is having them now. From something or someo-…" Lavanya trailed off her words, realizing in time she was grasping whatever Will was trying to hide from them.

Will let out a sigh of relieve. _'That was too close, Lavanya…'_

"Anyhow; don't go further than I just went, okay." Lavanya said.

The girls seemed somewhat unsettled by Lavanya's – and Will's – announcement of a secret. But seeing as Ruby hadn't appeared yet, it meant she hadn't gone too far into the subject. And as long as the girls wouldn't, they would be save. Will sighed relieved for that.

However, Cornelia opened with an no-thrust question. "And how do you know that?"

"Well… I was kidnapped and… Uhm… Unpleasant things happened. I really rather not talk about it. Much like Will's issue now." Lavanya explained shyly. She shove a bit uncomfortable with her body.

"I was talking about the whole Guardians thing. Where did you read about us." Corrected Cornelia.

"Owh… Erm…" Lavanya stammered surprised. "Well, I didn't read about you guys. But there is a lot written about Kandrakar and the Guardians. It seemed like someone was researching a lot about it. Some dark research too. It was during CHYKN's time as the Guardians. Although at some point for no reason, Ludmoore stopped. So I don't know everything. And I already explained how I figured you were the next generation."

"But more important things." Will said, adding a couch to get the girls' attention.

"The Heart…" She then added, softly. She still felt bad for the way she had lost it. "You need to go to the Oracle and… Erm… See if you can get the Heart."

The girls were surprised Will said 'you', as in 'ITCH'.

Will nodded. "My current condition makes that I can't enter Kandrakar. Otherwise I would have gone myself. I know it sounds stupid, but…"

"Not stupid." Was Taranee's Answer. "You're-"

Cornelia stopped Taranee from talking and shook her head. "We'll fetch the Heart for you."

Whatever made Cornelia suddenly go against Taranee, there was something she didn't want Will to know, what Taranee did seem to know.

A seed for doubt appeared in Will's mind and she knew why. Seeing everything that had happened, her holding so much secret, Lavanya appearing on stage, the Heart gone and Will not being able to enter Kandrakar… It wouldn't surprise her if what Cornelia was hinting at was to go to Kandrakar and discuss it with the other girls. But she wasn't sure whether to tell the girls she knew Cornelia's plan or not. It might spark even more doubt between the girls and that was something she wouldn't want to happen.

"So we'll wait here until you come back with Blunk's Tunga Tooth?" Irma asked hopefully, knowing that they had to search for Blunk first, before they could go to Kandrakar.

Cornelia shook her head. "I think it's better for four of us to go." She looked a bit worried at Will.

Will shot her a smile. "Don't worry about it. Mom doesn't want me to leave the bed anyway. So if you find Blunk, go ahead to Kandrakar without me."

There was an awkward silence as the four girls left, leaving only Will and Lavanya behind. As soon as Hay Lin, the last of them, closed the door behind her, Lavanya sighed pretty loud and groaned softly.

"I just wanted to read into some fantasy! Not get stuck up with this." Even though she made it out that she was annoyed, she had a smile on her lips. "Really, I hope this isn't what you guys do all day long."

Will shifted a bit with her body to get into a more comfortable position. "Well… It is… After Christmas we hope we would get some times off, not have some massive army attack Meridian again in a week. And because I can't tell you nothing about what's happening to me, I've gotten myself in a thigh corner. It's almost as if the universe is yelling 'become the next Nerissa, Will!'"

Lavanya tilted her head a bit funnily. "What do you mean?"

Will sighed and let herself sink deeper under her blanket. "I haven't told the girls that I lost the Heart because it rejected me. I don't know why, but it's probably the same as for why I can't enter Kandrakar."

"I've read Nerissa…"

Will shot Lavanya a sad smile. "I know what she did. And I sure hope I won't become like her. That would be awful."

Lavanya stood up and suddenly climbed on Will's bed. It startled Will a little, as almost reminded her of Ruby trying to drink her blood.

"Come on, if you can't learn from history, you're destined to repeat it." Lavanya said. "Isn't that why you send the girls to Kandrakar like you did? To have them talk with the Oracle. To prevent what happened before."

Will nodded a bit uncomfortably. "Uhh, yeah."

Lavanya led her body fall on Will's and then rolled to the wall side of her bed. "So, what's there to worry? You've got tons of friends to help you. And you're not greedily after the Heart."

Will nodded. "That's true. I think… Even though I have the girls 'fetch' the Heart for me. I wonder what is going on in Kandrakar."

"What's this Kandrakar like anyway? Ludmoore spoke of it as a dictatorship presence in the middle of 'Infinity'." Lavanya asked curiously. She made herself comfortably next to Will. Will looked a bit surprised at her by the actions off the girl. Lavanya noticed the surprise and smiled back as she leaned a bit into Will.

"Everyone needs a hug in a while!" Lavanya said with a grin.

"Yes, well, I don't really need a hug right now." Will said, getting a bit uncomfortable. Lavanya almost felt like a kitten craving for her attention, crawling all over her, trying to get her hand to pet Lavanya's head.

Lavanya spread her arms and then laid them a bit around Will. She rested her head on Will's chest. "But I do…" It was an almost pitiful voice. "I hate it. I've been through all of these… Things and now I've found my way back to you, _you're_ the one who has bad things happening to you."

Will sighed. "It's nothing. Really. It's…"

Thinking back about what Lavanya said about a hug, Will realized she wasn't honest with herself and embraced Lavanya a bit closer to her. Everything was going bad. Ruby had her chained with fear, the Heart rejected her, she couldn't go to Kandrakar, Meridian was on the edge of falling apart and the girls were losing all trust in her.

And while she felt Lavanya's return in her life was something she was happy for, so far she had brought Lavanya's life in danger again. She hadn't really spoken of what happened to her, but Will knew the vague details. Her mother died at childbirth, her father died in a fire and her uncle and aunt were brutally murdered the day the day Lavanya was kidnapped.

"Sorry for dragging you into this mess." Will said softly. She noticed Lavanya had started to sob. She seemed to keep it as much to herself as possible, but a sob left her now and then. She stroke Lavanya's hair gently. Not really sure how to reassure her, or herself.

* * *

><p>As the midday passed on, Will and Lavanya chatted some more before Will felt too sleepy and Lavanya left. After a few hours sleeping, she was woken up by the returns of the girls.<p>

They let Will come by and sat down in her room. As Will's senses came back to her, she noticed the girls were all a bit grim.

"What happened?" Will asked the moment she could speak.

"We… Spoke with the Oracle." Hay Lin said. "And my grandmother, and Halinoor, Kadma and Cassidy and…"

"Will, for the past few days there have been strange things going on and you are being the center of it. And you know it, more than any of us what is going on and you won't tell us. Not even the Oracle knows what's going on." Taranee said. "It's…"

While Hay Lin and Taranee seemed reluctant to go straight to the point, Cornelia was not. "You either tell us what is going on, or… We'll keep the Heart away from you."

Will hardly felt surprised. It was almost as she predicted it. And her answer was simple. She couldn't take the Heart if it meant talking about Ruby; she'd kill all five of them with ease. But it would cause a lot of upheaval between them. What could be so important for her to hide these things from them would ring through their minds. Then again, surely the girls must now understand why she wouldn't say anything to them.

She took a deep breath. "Then keep it away from me. I can't take the Heart if it also means taking your lives. Why can't you understand-"

"No, why won't _you_ understand? We're your friends, Will! You might not be able to handle whatever is… Haunting you. But we're with five people! None of us could handle Phobos or Nerissa on our own. We beat them because of us working together. We're in this together, whether you like it or not."

Those were words to consider. It was true. She was fighting this evil alone. But the power Ruby possessed was more than they could handle and she was a killer. She would not capture them. She would outright murder them.

"I can't bet your lives on that." Was Will's answer. "I know. We defeated Phobos and Nerissa together, but they were never out to kill is. Not like… Now. This… It's killing. And-"

"And it's going to do so as long as you won't tell us anything."

Will shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "How many people died since… I… Since this? Since I… Learned about the truth, it's been keeping quiet. This is something I have to carry alone, because it'll crush you the moment you realize what is going on."

Cornelia suddenly stood up. "You know what, fine! If you think you can handle this on your own, than go ahead. We're your friends and we're supposed to help you, but if you don't want our help then go ahead."

Will startled by her sudden reaction. More so when Taranee and Irma where agreeing. Hay Lin seemed to be on their side too, although she never really wanted to choose sides within the group. Which meant that things hadn't gone that well in Kandrakar either. She wondered what the Oracle had said to them.

The four girls stood up.

"We're sorry Will, but we can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong." Irma said.

"For now I'll keep the Heart." Taranee said. "If you're OK with that."

Will nodded a little. "Yeah. …"

None of the girls seemed to have anything to add to this and left the room on for one.

Hay Lin was last and she stopped in the doorway. She turned to Will.

Will could hear Cornelia say something to Cornelia. "It's no use. She won't tell you anything."

"You're not turning into Nerissa, are you?" Hay Lin asked. She seemed rather uncertain. Will was surprised the subject hadn't come up like that before among the group, only with Lavanya. Maybe they were all too scared. It was a bit of a taboo already. But Will could understand them. Nerissa had killed her best friend over the Heart, and everything was set for that to happen again. She couldn't let it happen. She would find a way around Ruby, to trick her, to defeat her.

Will looked up to Hay Lin. "I promise I won't."

It gave her a strange vibe, but Hay Lin smiled. She seemed to genuinely smile. What was so important about her promise? She didn't know, but before she could ask Hay Lin, she had already left the room.

Will sighed deep while she let her head hit the pillow, which hurt her more than she expected.

With the girls gone and it being late already, she tried to sleep this night.

* * *

><p>"Will."<p>

…

"Will."

After a few times hearing her name, Will opened her eyes a little. It was deep in the night. Her room was awfully cold and her blanket felt heavy. She tried to turn to her back and sit up, but noticed how there were four points around her that blocked her from doing so.

She startled and with a gasp she turned her head up. She saw a mask of a copper metal above her, looking down, she saw Ruby sitting over her on hands and knees.

"W-what are you doing here?" She asked, still mostly asleep.

"It's the night."

"The what?"

"You're going to turn tonight, Will."

Will shook her head a little, trying to shake herself awake. She was a little too sleepy to understand what Ruby was referring too. "Huh?"

"Get something warm to dress up in and meet me downstairs in 15 minutes." Ruby said with a hint of excitement. She climbed off Will and walked to the window. She jumped out and the window closed on its own.

Will sighed. Of course Ruby would interrupt her sleep.

She braced herself and pulled the blanket off her. A shiver ran through her body as the warmth disappeared and instantly made place for the ice cold. Will cursed Ruby for entering through the window like she did.

After Will changed into proper warm clothes, she left the apartment and went downstairs.

Ruby was outside, standing against the wall next to the front door.

"I suppose you can't parkour?" Ruby asked.

"Parkour?" Will asked confused.

"Free-running. You know. Running and climbing over the rooftops."

Will shook her head. "I don't think so. At least not in human form."

Ruby sighed. "Well, that's something you'll have to learn then." She paused for a moment. She looked at the sky and then at her wrist – mostly likely a watch, but Will couldn't actually see one.

"I suppose I'll have to carry you then."

"Carry me?"

"Yep. Hop on my back."

"You mean like piggy bagging?"

Ruby nodded, and Will had to blush. "Can't I cycle there, or can't you teleport us there?"

"The teleportation is only personal and you won't make it in time on two wheels, or four."

"Make it in time for what?" Will asked.

Ruby sighed. "You're really that thick, aren't you?"

"Yes, after being woken up in the middle of the night." Will remarked.

"Stop complaining and climb on my back." Ruby seemed to get a little annoyed. She turned her back towards Will. Although she wondered how that would fit with her cloak, the scales of the cloak seemed to shift and shape into a new set of clothing around Ruby. The scales became an armoured hooded vest and trousers and a small skirt.

Will put her arms around Ruby's neck and lifted herself up so she could wrap her legs around Ruby's waist. Ruby in turn grabbed around Will's legs to give her more stability.

"So… How is this going to be faster than cycling?"

Ruby suddenly crouched and a large red circle appeared on the ground. The circle was filled with all kinds of symbols Will couldn't place. The snow started to melt for the instant the circle was there.

"Hold on tight!" Ruby warned a moment before she made a giant leap into the air.

Will screamed as the air suddenly raced past her. She instinctively held on tighter around Ruby's chest. Although she had been airborne before, this was nothing like that. It happened in an instance.

Ruby landed on a roof and although Will was sure the shear speed and weight of them together should damage the roof, there was no damage at all.

Another red circle appeared behind Ruby and they shot forwards to the end of the roof. There a red circle appeared under them and they were launched high enough with such momentum that they landed on the roof across the street.

It went all so fast and Will had a hard time keeping track of where they were going. She was shaken around as Ruby jumped across the roofs. She held on even tighter to Ruby.

Going straight over the roofs with such momentum, they reached the edge of town within a few minutes. The moment they entered the forest, Will feared Ruby might run into a tree. But instead she dodged everything with amazing agility.

After a few minutes they reached the lake. Will was out of breath and her muscles were tired. She might not have run, but she had to hold tight a lot not to fall off Ruby, which would have probably hurt a lot if she did.

Ruby on the other hand seemed like she hadn't done anything. She was breathing normally as if nothing had happened.

Ruby turned to Will. "And now that we're here, -"

"You're going to tell me why we're here."

Ruby tilted her head a little like a curious dog. "So you still haven't figured it?"

Will shook her head. She tried to recall what was so important. At first it didn't hit her, but then she remembered that Ruby had said she would turn tonight.

Will shocked. She could slap herself for being so stupid. She had completely forgotten about her vampirism.

"Wait, we made a deal. You would take it away if I did as you said."

Ruby shook her head and pointed at Will's head – her bandage to be precise. "If I recall, you were trying to tell Kandrakar and I told you _not to_."

Will gulped. She did. She hadn't thought about the leverage Ruby had on her then. There was a reason why Ruby hadn't harmed her then – besides hitting her on the head.

"Y-you can't be serious."

Ruby shrugged. "If I recall correctly, you killed two humans thinking I wasn't serious."

Will shook her head. The images appeared before her. Her hand pointing and the woman and the child. Their lifeless bodies on the ground.

Will sank through her knees, her eyes looking in the darkness of the lake. "You're kidding me…"

Ruby sat down on her knees in front of her. "I think we already went through this whole 'I'm not serious' business trice by now. When are you going to realise you can't stand up against me."

Will felt almost paralyzed. Both her body as well as her mind ceased to function almost entirely. Her heart and her breath and become unnatural calm and no matter how much she thought, her mind remained empty. She was losing herself.

Will felt a harsh tug on her shoulder and a hand covered her eyes, pushing her head back a little. A cold crept up her neck and she heard a metallic click. Her body wasn't her own anymore and she couldn't stop Ruby from biting her.

Maybe becoming a vampire had its bright side; Ruby couldn't bite her anymore. But it was a rather dark price to pay for something so little.

What would become of her life now? She couldn't walk into the sun anymore and she had to drink blood. What else would happen? Would her eyes turn red too? And what would Ruby achieve from doing this? Didn't Ruby enjoy drinking her blood?

It made so little sense.

But she was right; Ruby was a danger. Disobey her and bad things would happen. Really bad things. And even though it was one on one. Who knew what tricks she had on her sleeve for the other girls. What horrible things could she do to them?

Will rather wanted that not to happen. Her whole heroic 'I will beat Ruby' left her thoughts completely. Beating Ruby? There was no way that would happen.

Will felt Ruby pulling back and after a metallic click, Ruby allowed Will to see again. However, Will didn't support her body anymore and she fell with her back in the snow. She looked up at the cloudy sky between the branches, before closing her eyes.

A sob left her and she hugged herself. "Why? Why me?" She muttered softly.

Ruby didn't answer her. She sat down next to Will and revealed a corked vial with a red liquid inside of it. Could it be human blood?

Whether it was or not, Ruby wanted her to take it in. Albeit forcefully. She forced Will's mouth open and poured the liquid in. It was warm, but it wasn't blood. It didn't taste like that and it was way to too spicy for that.

A reflex made her swallow the liquid whole.

"What was that?" Will asked.

The liquid felt rather hot as it flowed down her throat, as if she ate a really hot pepper.

"A potion that eases the turning. It won't feel as bad now." Ruby explained.

Will scoffed. "Should I be thanking you now?" She hugged herself and tears started to form in her eyes. Both because she wanted to cry and because a pain started to form in her body.

"If you want." Ruby said.

A burst of heat erupted from her stomach and crept through her whole body. It felt as if she was hit by one of Taranee's flames, except the heat came from within her. The heat seemed to be real as the snow around her slowly melted and vapor was rising above her. Sparks of black lightning jumped off her, trying to connect whatever it felt to connect to.

Will tried to keep her screams for herself, but the pain was unbearable and she couldn't hold the screams back.

Her mind felt empty and the world around her felt surreal, but her body was burning and aching all over.

Her first thought to counter the heat was to take her clothes off. She was already unzipping her jacket when Ruby came close and stopped her. "Don't. The cold will kill you." She said. Although she stopped Will from taking her clothes off in any way, Ruby didn't try to sooth her in any other way.

Will felt like kicking and slamming around, as if it would help to shrug off the pain. She turned to her side and clasped the ground in her hands.

The pain became her too much and she slowly felt her consciousness slip away. It felt as if she was falling through the ground, darkness surrounding her until the light from outside was too weak to reach her. Before she realized it the was knocked out and the pain abruptly ended.

* * *

><p>She woke up with a groan. Her head felt weird. Her thoughts were lost in a, what seemed infinite, space. She couldn't get her thoughts straight.<p>

Luckily, her body did work on her command and she slowly sat up. When she sat, she remembered the intense pain she felt earlier and held a hand against her head and she embraced her stomach with the other.

She looked around her, it was already day. Or at least, it seemed like it. Startled by how late it was, she looked up to see where the sun was to judge time, but the odd thing was that there was a thick layer of clouds blocking any light from coming through. Despite this, everything was crisp and clear.

Something else she noticed was the large ring of ground in the middle of the thick snow, where she sat, where there was no snow. The ground was still very cold though.

Ruby sat a few meters in front of her on her knees. She stared at Will, through the slits of her mask.

"How are you feeling?"

Will tried to think of anything, but she couldn't. It was extremely hard for her to focus on one task. After a few minutes she managed to come up with something, but it was not something she intended to say, it was one of the many questions she had, not an important one at all.

"Why is everything so bright?"

"It seems you've trouble thinking, don't you?"

Will wanted to nod, but she lost her focus again and asked another question instead.

"What happened to me?"

"Try to count up by multiplying 3 over and over again."

Will blinked confused and while she didn't want to try it, her mind subconsciously did so anyway. She tried to get her focus of the counting, but she still kept counting. Ironic that she couldn't get her thoughts straight, but this was stubborn to stop.

What surprised her, though, was that it went relatively easy. Or at least, it felt like it. She couldn't grasp the numbers she came up with, but she felt part of herself doing all the math. As the number became bigger, the calculating slowed down a lot. But her ability to focus returned to normal. Somehow, because the empty space was filled with large numbers and a calculation, she had much less trouble dedicating a piece of her mind to herself and her surroundings. Her thoughts became clear again, although she found herself thinking about the numbers in-between. But it felt unnatural natural. It didn't bother her 'normal' thoughts train.

"Because of the vampirism, your mind has expanded. Doing simple but repeated maths is a trick young kids learn to deal with it until they can handle the extra mind space better." Ruby explained. "As for the brightness and what happened to you: you successfully turned."

Will remembered the hell she went through for a short time, before passing out, and the reason why Ruby brought her here in the first place.

She didn't believe her and she subconsciously went with her tongue past the top of her teeth. And indeed; the two upper canines were slightly longer and slightly pointier than before. She also noticed how the rest of her teeth were much sharper all together. It reminded her of the dental layout of carnivores.

Despite the mind space trick Ruby just gave her, Will felt herself lost in her thoughts. She couldn't believe her, it. She wanted so badly it wasn't true. That she had succeeded into preventing the turning, but she hadn't.

Ruby had _won_ once again.

Will let her shoulders sag and rested her face in the palm of her hands. She slowly started to cry and she muttered the same word in disbelieve, over and over again. "No."

She trebled a bit from fear and frustration. When was this going to stop? What had so go through next? Could it be undone at all?

Ruby walked towards her and sat down on her knees in front of her. She laid her hands on Will's shoulders. "Hey, are you all right?" She asked, almost soothingly.

From anything that had happened, that infuriated Will the most. Wondering if she was all right? Caring for her? She was sick in her head. A monster and she knew it.

"_You_ are asking _me_ if I'm _all right?_" Will asked as she pushed Ruby's hands of her. "_You_ still have the _guts_ to ask me if I am all right?" Will subconsciously raised her voice more and more. She growled at her and yelled at her. "You sick monster! After everything you've done to me, you ask _me_ if I'm _all right_?" She pushed Ruby backwards and actually succeeded. Ruby yelped surprised as she landed on her back.

Will jumped on top of her. "My friends and Kandrakar distrust me, Meridian is wiped off the map, my life is a mess – I can't even walk in day light anymore – and you _dare_ to ask_ me_ if I'm all right?" She grabbed Ruby by her shoulders and slammed her back against the ground once, twice. "Of course I'm not!"

She let go of Ruby's right shoulder and clenched her hand to her fist. Without thinking, hoping that the vampirism closed the power gap between them, she punched Ruby's face as hard as she could.

"If you weren't already were undead, I wished you dead!" Will yelled as she punched Ruby another time.

"The world would be a better place without you! Rainbows…" Will said, sobbing, punching Ruby again with her other hand,

"And sunshine for everyone!"

Breathing heavily, trebling in a fit of fury and anger. She glared at Ruby, who had done nothing so far.

Will took a deep breath.

"I wish you'd never been born!"

Will lifted her arm and put as much of her remaining strength into her next punch as she could. But before the punch actually connected, her hand stopped only a few centimeters from the copper mask. She realized none of her punches had actually ever connected. She attacked Ruby without thinking. She hoped she could hurt Ruby, but she couldn't. She never could. She never would.

She only now realized the error she made.

Flames suddenly erupted from behind Ruby and in some sort of explosion Will was launched in the air. She landed on her back a few metres back in the snow. She quickly sat up and looked at Ruby. She was slowly getting up, an aura of small flames whizzing dangerous around her.

"You really had to say it."

Will was surprised by the tone of her voice. She hit Ruby. Not physically, but mentally. She hit an important string in Ruby. But Will feared that the sound would resonant and hurt her more than it did Ruby. She felt the energy around Ruby getting more out of control.

Ruby brought her hands together, as if she was going to crack her knuckles. But instead, the magical aura around became triple, maybe even four times as powerful and unpredictable as before. Flames began the surround around her body, adding two sets of massive wings and what seemed like a tail behind her.

Will slowly crawled backwards, her eyes wide open and her mouth slightly open in disbelieve. She had to do it. She _had_ to mindlessly attack Ruby. At this point Will wondered if she hated herself more that Ruby did.

Ruby slowly stepped towards Will, muttering something. Will couldn't quite understand what she was saying, but it had a dark air. As if she was cursing herself and the world around her.

When Will hit a tree, her breathing stocked. The heat around Ruby made the air very thin. On the ground, the snow turned to water and vaporized in an instant. Will felt sweat form over her body. It became worse when she hit a tree. Her breathing stocked and found it difficult to breathe. The heat around Ruby made the air very thin. On the ground, the snow turned to water and vaporized in an instant. Will felt sweat form over her body. It was even worse than when she turned.

Where Ruby stepped and her fiery tail touched the ground, the rotten leaves incinerated, leaving a trail of ash and cinder.

Ruby was menacing. Who was she really and where did her power come from? To what extend was she really a vampire? Those wings and tail, it almost felt to be organically fitting to Ruby, yet why would a vampire have them? Had she a wrong idea of vampires or was Ruby powerful enough to control the flames in such a way?

When Ruby stood in front of her, Will could hardly remain conscious. She felt boiling up and there was almost no oxygen in the air.

Ruby crouched and slowly grabbed Will at her throat and lifted her a little up. The fabric of her jacket around her neck burned away. So either her vampirism protected her a great deal from the heat or the Heart still protected her in some way.

Will instinctively grabbed Ruby's wrists, causing the fabric of her sleeves to turn into ashes.

The last bit of oxygen was being deprived from her and she started to lose consciousness. Her vision blurred and an immense headache was pounding in her head together with a stinging pain in her chest. The little bit of air she did manage to take in dried her throat to the point where it was even painful to breath.

Was this it? Was Ruby going to kill her?

No. She wouldn't. Somewhere, Will still had something that guarded her life; Ruby needed her specifically. Something only she could do. Will hadn't yet figured what it was, but it meant Ruby couldn't hurt her.

She seemed to be correct to some extend as Ruby let her suddenly go.

Her legs unable to support her, she collapsed on the ground. She tried to take deep breathes, trying to refresh the air in her blood. The air was too hot and too thin and she started couching, as if she didn't already need air enough.

She startled as she felt the iron taste of blood fill her mouth and as she couched, she noticed a few drops of blood landing on the ground. Her lungs and throat were badly damaged.

It was hard for her to notice. The excruciating pain in her body made the environment around her invisible to her. But the heat was slowly dissipating, it was cooling down considerably. But not completely. A little bit of Ruby's aura remained, which Will thanked her for.

While the cold air would be a blessing for a burned body, it would also kill her almost instantly. Even if it was just around zero degrees, the could would damage the cells in her longs and throat it would kill them. Refreshing air in her blood would be impossible and she would suffocate.

Ruby let Will lay there for quite a while. This allowed Will to restore a little. Her body seemed to regenerate a little faster than normally. Blood didn't come up in her mouth anymore and breathing was much less painful. She hadn't recovered a lot, but she could still survive at this rate.

Will slowly looked up at Ruby. The flames had disappeared and it seemed like Ruby had caught all the energy in a ball she was currently holding between her hands in front of her. It was very bright, but not bright enough to hurt Will's eyes.

"It seems I wasn't quite clear." Ruby muttered.

Will looked confused at her. But after a short silence she realized what Ruby meant.

"Do you know how kind I was, letting your friends life? Do you?" Ruby muttered. "I need _you._ But I have no obligation not to hurt anyone else in the process. I thought I was clear, but apparently not."

A painful gulp of bile went down Will's throat. Why had she been doing all this all this time? To protect her friends. She had killed people to protect her friends. She was humiliated to protect her friends.

But somewhere inside her was still the little rebellious Will who'd pop up once in a while and bring everyone in danger without thinking_._

Will's mind was searching for a solution. But she couldn't come up with anything viable. It was either suicide, either literally to bargain with her own life or by attacking Ruby and in turn get killed by her. Or she had to do something dangerous for Ruby. The last time she had to kill two innocent people, a child and her mother. What would Ruby ask of her this time? To kill her friends herself?

Her last option was to call out for the girls, if her Guardian powers were still up to it. But it meant sending them against Ruby without transformation abilities. It would be a massacre, too.

From all the things she had, bargaining with her own life felt like the most 'ideal'. It had happened in history before and it worked. It just depended on how far Ruby was willing to go for her. It could even mean turning around the tables if she was lucky.

"Go ahead." Will muttered. Her body wasn't really up to talking yet, but if she didn't hurt herself now for this, her friends and other people would die in Ruby's turn.

Ruby turned her head surprised to Will and paused her incantation-like muttering. "Huh?"

"I said; go ahead. Kill them."

She heard Ruby laugh. "And I will. Just watch."

"But then I'll kill myself. Bite my tongue. I'll bleed to death and you'll lose _me._"

Ruby chuckled somewhat nervous. Did it mean Will had a chance left? A little bit of hope rose up in her.

But it was to no avail. "Go ahead. Do something funny and _I_ will do something funny." Ruby answered. "And you know I think would be funny? Destroying the Earth and then Metamoor. I get the feeling you still don't get who I am, what I am capable off. The army that attacked Meridian; a mere scouting party. I have an army that is able to wipe humanity off the face of the Earth in a single month. Metamoor in a week."

"Or maybe I'll slam a moon or two here and there. Now _that_ would be funny, don't you think?" Ruby replied. She continued with some kind of incantation.

Will froze. Maybe she deserved to lose all her close ones, for failing to realize just how powerful her enemy was. The girls were wrong; even as a team they couldn't beat Ruby. Nobody could.

But allowing the girls to die for her mistake wasn't what she was fighting for. There had to be something she could bargain with. She tried various things, some things she wasn't even proud of thinking off. And although some of the things peaked Ruby's interest, she whisked them all away.

There had to be something that Ruby would let her do to safe her friends.

What Will didn't understand was that Ruby wasn't trying to advance into her plan more.

"You're quite stupid, aren't you?" Ruby replied after Will's last plead. "Of course you're going to wrap my plan up. But first I'm going to make sure that you're not going to turn my back on my again."

So it was done? Her friends would die, her mind would break down so she would unconditionally do what Ruby asked her. Or the world itself was going to perish.

She couldn't come up with anything. Her body was aching and despite the counting trick, she couldn't focus her mind enough. No matter what she thought off, it only spelled doom in one way or another.

Eventually Ruby stopped and raised both arms into the air, aiming the orb of fire towards the sky.

"Have you said goodbye to your friends?"

Will shook her head. Tears appeared in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. '_How can I? I…killed them…'_

"Such a shame." Ruby said and the orb launched into the air, leaving a trail of cinders behind.

Once it was high enough that it's light was tiny, that of a star, it exploded and several orbs flew into various directions.

_'I'm sorry guys… I really am. I killed you guys… I'm so sorry…'_ Will thought to herself.

Will startled when she heard a voice reply. From all things she didn't expect that she would accidentally trigger the telepathy.

_'What are you talking about? What do you mean with to kill us?'_ Taranee replied.

Will startled up. She subconsciously looked around, as if Taranee was actually here. But she wasn't here. She was home, in her room, in her bed.

Will could think up with only one thing to yell; _'Get out of there!'_

Her call was followed by a series of explosions in the distance and there was no further reply. Will tried to call out for the girls several times, but there was no reply.

"Bleep-bleep-bleep. Sorry, connection lost. Try again another time." Ruby joked. She gasped and put her hand for her mouth. "Oh wait, _they are death._"

Will shook her head furiously. "No! You can't! They can't! T-they can't be death! You're lying!"

Will grabbed her head with both hands as she cried more tears she ever did. She pulled her legs close to her and rested her forehead on top of her knees. She cried and muttered. She regretted most of all.

_Why_ did she have to attack Ruby?

_Why_ did all this have to happen to her? To her friends, to innocents. What could be so important to Ruby that she did what she did?

Fore minutes, Will only cried. She sobbed. She yelled, at herself for being such a failure. She wished Ruby just killed _her_ instead of everyone else.

And even now, even though the thought passed her a lot, she couldn't kill herself either. It would mean the end of Earth and Metamoor too and she couldn't bare that burden on her soul.

As to pour salt over her wounds, Will could hear the sirens of ambulances, firefighters and police in the background.

She broke Will's spirit. There was nothing she could do anymore. Not fight her, not outwit her.

All her friends were death. Maybe her family too. Maybe even Angelo.

What could there be worse? Would she had to kill _more _people? Betray _more_ friends?

_Ruby won._

* * *

><p><strong>AN:  
>So…<br>Talk about something heavy hearted…**

**Will's a vampire, her friends are presumably death...  
>What is Ruby planning to do? What had Will to do, that she needs to be mentally broken down to the ground?<strong>

**Sorry for the massive delay (School, mental civil war. The usual stuff), but I think what just happened made up for it.**  
><strong>I wanted to make the chapter longer, but in order to make the next ending fit perfectly, I have to split these up, or there would be another month of waiting involved.<strong>

**For those wondering; I listened to "There is no plan" from the OST from Transformers Dark of the Moon at the end. Although the scene wasn't an inspiration for what happened here, I think the music is 'appropriate'.**

**Please review and if you liked the story so far; follow the story and see you next time!**


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